Through It All
by bitter-sweet91
Summary: Karin and Hitsugaya thought that they knew each other so well, well enough to assume that Karin would continued being a normal girl rather than preparing for the Winter War. Hitsu x Karin, Ishida x Inoue x Ulquiorra,Ichigo x Rukia please dont flame me.
1. Chapter 1

**Through It All**

**Hey everyone! I'm back again. If you had read my last Hitsu x Karin fanfic, then you know who I am. After thinking for a very long time, I decided to make another Hitsu x Karin fanfic since I succeeded with the last one. However, I apologize if this fan fic sounds sort of like the last one. This story takes place right at the end of ep 132. Fire and Ice took place about 5 years after. Well, enjoy.**

**Soccer Field**

"Urusei! I'm not an elementary student!" yelled the white haired captain. "Of course you are! You're a midget!" said the raven- haired soccer player as she smacked her hand on his forehead and began rubbing it.

The short captain began to twitch irritatingly as the two girls Karin and Matsumoto standing before him laughed at him. Not long after, they began to hear moaning and grumbling from a group of students that were on the soccer field.

Karin took her hand off Hitsugaya as she began to help her team up. She looked up at Hitsugaya for help and saw that he disappeared. When she turned around, she saw him helping the rest of her teammates.

"We should get them home." He said. Karin nodded and they headed to drop Karin's teammates to their homes.

As they went and finally dropped off the last person, Karin was lost in thought.

_There's too much I don't understand. Why are there Shinigami here? Where is Ichi-nii?_

Being lost in her thoughts she didn't realize that she completely passed her own house. Then, she heard someone calling her. She whipped around and spat, "What do you want?!" It wasn't until Hitsugaya pointed to her house that she realized she passed it. She completely forgot about him. A blush formed on her cheeks as she stomped her way through her house glaring daggers at Hitsugaya's smirking face.

"Oi. Toshiro. You coming?" Karin asked as Hitsugaya 'hned' and walked into the Kurosaki household.

As the pair walked in, a girl the same age as Karin greeted them. "Welcome back home Karin-chan, eh … are you Karin's friend?"

"Uh … yes." Hitsugaya replied. Everyone could hear stomping noises echoing through out the house until something popped out. "Karin-chan! You're finally home!! Give daddy a big hug!"

Isshin latched himself on to Karin … or who he thought was Karin. Hitsugaya's eyes bulged out of his head, as he was being glomped by Isshin.

"Oi Otousan! I'm right here," Karin said across the room. Isshin looked up and saw that his daughter was standing across the room. He quickly turned his gaze to Hitsugaya who had a 'What – the – hell' look plastered onto his face. Isshin quickly removed himself and glared at Hitsugaya.

"Who are you?! And what do you want with my family? Are you here to take one of my beautiful daughters away? Well listen up boy! I won't let you!"

Isshin bellowed at Hitsugaya breathing fire from his mouth ready to attack him. Of course, that didn't happen since Isshin began to soar across the room into a wall. Karin's fist was shaking furiously as Hitsugaya and Yuzu sweat dropped.

Suddenly, there was a squeak and everyone turned towards the stairs.

"Bostafu!" Yuzu squealed as she picked up Kon and placed him on the sofa.

Karin stared at the plush doll seeing if something will happen. Hitsugaya also glanced at Kon but then shrugged it off when Yuzu spoke up.

"Ano … will you be staying for dinner?" She asked Hitsugaya and he said yes.

**Dinner Table**

Everyone was sitting at the Kurosaki dinner table. There Karin rolled her eyes as Hitsugaya was talking and Isshin and Yuzu were crying holding tissues in their hands and a pile of used tissues lay beside them.

"And because of what happened to my family I'm forced to survive with only my elder sister and I. I must admit it kind of becomes lonely but after a while you get used to it." Hitsugaya said directing his face away from the Kurosaki's as if trying not to show that he too was crying.

Karin rolled her eyes as she thought,

_Omg. Please don't tell my Otousan will fall for this. Toshiro doesn't even act like this._

As if answering back to her Isshin slowly got up and took Hitsugaya in his arms and said, "Oh Shiro-chan, do not worry, You and your elder sister can stay with us. Poor child, cry no more! I! Kurosaki Isshin will provide you with all the love and care you need!" Hitsugaya sweat dropped as Karin's jaw touched the floor. Yuzu got up and hugged her new onni-chan.

Hitsugaya smirked as he said to Karin, "Well what do you know, that actually worked." Karin glared at Hitsugaya. Somewhere in the room a plush doll squeaked this time, nobody did anything.

For the rest of the dinner they all talked about their day as both Hitsugaya and Karin left out parts like the hollow that suddenly appeared after the soccer game and that Hitsugaya is a Shinigami. Hitsugaya got up and excused himself to call his 'sister'.

**Bathroom**

"Oi Matsumoto, I've got a place to stay besides Orihime's."

"Really? That's great, but why do we need another place to stay? Isn't Orihime's place fine?"

"It is, but consider the fact that if something were to happen and we no longer be able to stay at her apartment. We would need another place to stay."

"I see."

"Matsumoto, I want you to go to the Kurosaki household. They believe that you are out at work."

"I see, but hey wait!"

Without further explanation, Hitsugaya hung up on Matsumoto.

Hitsugaya returned to the dinner table watching the Kurosaki family bickering, laughing, and just having fun.

Not long, the doorbell rang and Yuzu stood up to get the door. In came Matsumoto and caught sight of Hitsugaya. She smirked at him as he scowled.

"Good evening, my name is Hitsugaya Rangiku and I hear that my adorable little brother was here." Hitsugaya's eye twitched with the words adorable and little. Karin saw this and smirked.

Isshin stood up.

"Oh, you are his elder sister? Well Rangiku-chan, welcome to the Kurosaki family! Shiro-chan has told me about you and your situation. I'm willing to provide you a home of love and –

"Okay Otousan, just tell them they can stay here!" Karin cut Isshin off staring at Matsumoto and Hitsugaya.

Matsumoto squealed and said thank you as she began looking around the room observing the house as if she was inspecting it to see if it was a stable and sanitary home to _her_ liking.

After a while, everyone began to head to their rooms. Hitsugaya and Matsumoto shared Ichigo's room.

"Um Karin-chan," Yuzu asked as she began to hop into bed, "What will happen when Ichi-nii comes back? We only have one guest room and Rukia-nee occupies that room. Where will Shiro-nii and Rangiku-nee sleep?" Karin stared at her sister and told her not to worry about that now, but just worry about it when the time comes.

Soon Yuzu was sleeping and the door suddenly opened, thinking that the twins were asleep, Kon quickly tried to run out the room when a pair of arms grabbed him and stepped out the room.

"Okay plush doll! I want answers and you had better give them to me. Who are you? What are you? How long have you been here? And what is your purpose?"

Kon looked up at the girl and tried to break free until two figures appeared before him.

"He's Kon, a modified soul in a plush doll. He's been here since Ichigo became a Shinigami. Ichigo told him to watch over your family." Hitsugaya said as he stepped into the light that was created by the moon through the window.

Karin looked up to Hitsugaya and Matsumoto as Kon freed himself and glomped Matsumoto's chest, which she gripped Kon and threw him aside with ease.

Hitsugaya stared at Karin. "I suppose you want answers." Karin nodded. "Just as you want answers also am I right Toshiro?"

Hitsugaya turned and walked toward Ichigo's room with Matsumoto, Karin, and Kon following him.

Karin seated herself on Ichigo's bed staring at the three figures. "Okay shall I ask first or do you want to start? Karin asked.

"We'll start." Hitsugaya replied.

"How much of Soul Society do you know?"

Through out the night the four of them stayed in Ichigo's room questioning each other about certain things. Neither of them went to sleep. It was a good thing that it was Sunday, Karin didn't have to go to school. So she would be able to sleep in. It was now 5 in the morning as Karin got up and stared at the other three. Her head was hurting. Not because she was physically hit in the head, but because of the new information she was trying to digest wasn't going through her head as she thought it would.

"That's all I know and can tell you. I'm glad that you guys told me everything. Don't worry I'm not going to say anything to Otou-san or Yuzu." Karin took one last glance at them as she went to go to her room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Through It All**

Its been a few days since Hitsugaya told Karin everything. For those past few days, he noticed that Karin hasn't been home at all and when she did come home, she would lock herself in her room. Poor Yuzu wasn't even allowed to go in even though she too owned that room.

Hitsugaya went downstairs for breakfast as Rukia stared at him.

"Hitsugaya-Taichou, what did you tell Karin?" Rukia asked emotionlessly.

"I simply told her everything I knew." Hitsugaya made his way to the breakfast table but was stopped when Rukia grabbed his arm. "You told her about Ichigo and about Soul Society?" Rukia looked at Hitsugaya alarmed.

Hitsugaya just nodded and walked away. He came face to face with Karin as Rukia gasped.

"Rukia-nee … you know about it too? You know where Ichi-nii is don't you?"

"I … yes I do." Rukia looked away avoiding Karin's eyes.

"Please tell me. Please Rukia-nee," Karin went up to Rukia. Rukia stared at Karin.

"He's … training with the Vizards." Karin's eyes widen as realization slapped her in the face.

"He's … he has a hollow?"

Before Karin could press on further Yuzu said it was time for breakfast. Everyone made their way to the table, forgetting about the Ichigo Issue the morning was still the same. Isshin making a fool of himself, Karin beating Isshin up as he runs to the mural of his wife, Yuzu calming them down, and the other three shinigami participating in the crazy breakfast.

"I'm leaving, bye guys!" Karin said as she left. Everyone knew that once she was gone she wouldn't be back until after sun down.

Sensing that now is the right time, Hitsugaya went to follow Karin to see what she's been up to these past few days. Hitsugaya wanted to know what she's been up to especially since she stopped carrying her soccer ball he started to be suspicious of her actions. Also, her reiatsu has been strained lately.

Finally, she reached her destination and Hitsugaya stared at her, eyes widening.

_Urahara's shop?_

Karin knew he was following her. She didn't care really. As long as he doesn't interfere with anything, she really didn't care that he was following her. As Karin entered the shop, Urahara attacked Karin.

Karin sensed where he was even though it was pitch black in the shop. With a loud bang, the lights went on and Hitsugaya stood surprised at the door.

A mechanical Urahara was lying on the floor broken as Karin stood with a foot on the mechanical Urahara and a stick in one hand. Hitsugaya stared at the stick. He felt that there was a stream of reiatsu pouring into the stick from Karin's hands.

A dark shadowy figure began to clap as they walked into the light. "Oh, Karin-chan. That was much better than yesterday." Urahara grinned.

"Of course, it was still horrible." A red haired kid said.

"What did you say?" Karin growled.

"You heard me."

Karin then remembered that Hitsugaya was following her.

"Oi! You don't have to keep hiding … Toshiro."

Hitsugaya walked into the shop frowning.

_How did she know I was following her?_

Hitsugaya then looked up at Urahara. Urahara just grinned as Hitsugaya glared. "Urahara, could we just start already. I can't afford to waste time." Karin said as she walked further into the shop.

"Of course Karin-chan." He said leading her to the same place where he trained Ichigo.

Hitsugaya followed them, never keeping his eyes off both Urahara and Karin.

**Hey everyone! Um don't really have much to say but hope you are enjoying it so far.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Through It All**

**Abandoned Building**

"Okay … Everyone break time!!" A blonde haired boy said. "You know, I fail to see why we always have to eat carb + carb." Said an annoyed orange-haired shinigami.

"Do you not want to eat at all you ungrateful runt?!" shrieked a freckled blonde girl, "I should just stop training you and leave you to die by the arrancars!" she yelled at Ichigo. "Che … alright already. I was just asking." Ichigo stuffed his face muttering.

"What was that?!" Hiyori screamed side kicking Ichigo leaving an imprint on his face in the shape of her foot.

Ichigo was going to complain but felt a sudden reiatsu power up. He looked around as did everyone else but they noticed it wasn't coming from them or anywhere in the training area.

"What the hell was that?" Ichigo asked suddenly he turned to Hiyori, "that's not another Arrancar is it?" Hiyori shook her head, "No it feels too pure to be an Arrancar."

The reiatsu then disappeared and they resumed their training. Although, there is no doubt that every single Vizard in that room including Ichigo were thinking the same thing.

_Who the hell was that? Where the hell was that strong reiatsu coming from?_

**Urahara's Shop**

Hitsugaya sat looking at Karin. Many thoughts were running through his head as he watched Karin sparring four against one. He saw Karin fight Jinta and then switch to Ururu. Renji tried to hit her as well. Chad tried to do a sneak attack. He wasn't sure if he was impressed or angry.

_Angry? Why would I be angry?_

He felt somewhat angry with himself. If he hadn't told Karin anything she wouldn't be here training.

_What makes her think she can fight in the winter war? She just starts training now? She won't be strong enough._

Even though the small captain thought it was anger, Urahara smiled and thought to himself,

_Maa … Hitsugaya, its not anger you feel._

Urahara stared at Karin.

_She's improving drastically. However, she's just like Ichigo. She may have a little fear and uncertainty within herself. But, I believe she'll get over it. If Ichigo could there's no doubt that she'll get over it too._

Urahara turned his gaze back to Hitsugaya studying his expression. He chuckled as he thinks,

_The kid cares about Karin-chan, but he doesn't even see that himself._

"Hah… to be young and in love." Urahara said out loud.

"What was that?" Hitsugaya asked glaring at Urahara knowing that he was referring to him. Urahara grinned and looked away.

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

Then out of nowhere there was a sudden increase of flow of reiatsu. It kept increasing and increasing as the training grounds began to break apart. The wind picked up, blowing everything in it's way everywhere.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at Karin as she released her reiatsu. Then with sudden reflexes she quickly finished off Renji, Ururu, Chad, and Jinta. Slowly her reiatsu decreased and vanished. The five of them were sprawled on the ground.

Karin gazed at the sky and sighed.

_No. I have to keep going. I need to get ready in time for the winter war._

Karin rose from the ground and stared around her. The other four were knocked out. She slowly walked towards Urahara and Hitsugaya. However, she felt like she couldn't go on anymore, so when she came face to face with Hitsugaya she collapsed on him. Hitsugaya held Karin and stared worriedly but then returned to his angry look when he caught Urahara's eyes staring at him.

Hitsugaya headed towards the stairs leading back to the shop as Urahara grinned once again before retrieving the other four people lying unconscious on the ground.

Slowly Karin began opening her eyes. She sat up and began to head out of the futon when she heard voices. Karin put her ear to the crack of the sliding door then looked between the crack. She saw Urahara, Tessai, Yoruichi, Rukia, Matsumoto, and Hitsugaya. "We should take her back and erase her memory." Rukia said.

"No. She's improving. If we train her like this she may be able to fight in the winter war and survive." Urahara defended.

"But Urahara-san, she'll get hurt. She might even be killed. What will we say to her family or let alone Ichigo if one day she is killed? Surely you know that Ichigo is capable of murdering us especially now that he's training his hollow side." Matsumoto said.

Silence came upon them until Yoruichi spoke up, "We should train her. So, if she can't fight in the winter war, she could still fight here and protect her family."

Urahara turned to Hitsugaya, "What do _you_ think we should do _Taichou_?"

Hitsugaya stared down at the table and closed his eyes to think.

Karin stared at Hitsugaya. She wanted to know what he was thinking. She was getting scared. She wanted Hitsugaya to tell them he would let her fight in the war, but part of her wanted him to say that he wouldn't let her. She was confused but then she thought about her family and about the time she went to her mother's grave. She remembered how a hollow attacked her and Yuzu and how she couldn't do anything but wait for Ichigo to come and rescue her. She didn't want that to happen again. She wanted to be able to protect everyone without relying on Ichigo. She looked through the crack as Hitsugaya finally made his decision.

"I think … I think that we should stop training her now before it's too late. We can't afford to get her killed. Ichigo wouldn't want that to –

"NO!" The sliding door slid open as Karin limped out the room. "I'm going to fight! I don't care! I can't always rely on Ichi-nii! You are going to train me! That is my decision and mine alone."

She glanced at everyone in the room. Hitsugaya stood up and said, "Kurosaki we can't let you risk your life out there –

"Toshiro! I'm going to fight and you can't stop me!"

"Kurosaki –

"Toshiro! I'm surprised. You of all people, I thought you would understand me!" Hitsugaya stared at her. She's always yelled at him but this was different. She was actually angry with him.

"I thought you would be the one to understand me the most, the reason why I have to fight. You know how it feels when you fail to protect someone close to you. I don't know about you, but I don't ever want that to happen again. I don't want to fail in protecting someone close to me ever again!!" Karin glared at Hitsugaya.

After hearing that, Hitsugaya suddenly thought of Hinamori. He could see it again. The fight he had with Gin and Aizen. He couldn't protect Hinamori. He failed to protect her as Gin defeated his Hyorinmaru. Now Hinamori was no longer the same.

Hitsugaya turned around and said, "Fine." He walked out of the shop as everyone stared at Karin.

Nobody said anything. Many thoughts were racing through everyone's heads. Unsure of what to say or do. Unsure of Karin and Hitsugaya's relationship. No one has ever had the guts to actually argue with Hitsugaya. No one had guts except for Karin.

Urahara turned to Karin. "For now on you'll be staying here." Karin nodded and went back to her futon to think.


	4. Chapter 4

**Through It All**

**Hueco Mundo**

Sitting on a throne looking chair, Aizen drank from his goblet as he stared at Tosen. "And so as far as I know everyone is training, including Kurosaki Ichigo and surprisingly his sister Kurosaki Karin."

Tosen rose from his bowing form as Aizen laughed. "Interesting. He is training Kurosaki's sister but not that human girl Inoue. I see. Truly interesting. Ulquiorra?"

"Hai Aizen-sama?" Ulquiorra stood before Aizen. His emotionless face stared intently at Aizen waiting for him to order him.

"I want you to assist me."

"Hai."

"I have an interest in that human girl, Kurosaki calls 'Inoue'. We'll be heading to the real world and I want you to assist me."

"Hai Aizen-sama."

Aizen stood up and looked around him. He smiled cynically and began to laugh, as he thinks,

_This is where the fun begins._

**The Ishidas**

A single arrow flew by creating an explosion in the corner of the room. A boy with glasses looks around him seeing where he can run to without being shot at. Slowly and carefully, he looks out the window to see the moon.

_It's night already._

He thought.

"Hm… are you worried about your shinigami friends?" A man who had glasses, clad in a white suit said to the boy who looks somewhat like him.

"Hn…" the boy replied.

"You call yourself a Quincy. You won't get your powers back like that. I thought you lost all connections to them."

The boy continued to remain quiet, concentrating on how to defeat his father. He thought to himself. How were they doing, was Ichigo training as hard as he was? Was Chad and Inoue still … alive? Was Rukia with them?

He would never admit it but he cared about them and he wanted to know how they were doing.

Once again, he barely escaped his father's arrows as he thought about everything. The only person of the group he last spoke to was Inoue. Last time they spoke it sounded as if he was saying good bye. He knew Inoue thought that there was something he wasn't telling them. He remembered when he walked her home that one day, she figured out that he wasn't ever going to talk to them again.

But before she could say anything he quickly gave her a hug and left. Since then he never saw or talked to any of them.

"You should just give up Uryu. You are a disgrace to our Quincy society." Ryuken exclaimed.

Finally Uryu attacked his father as he yelled, "I am not a disgrace!"

Uryu didn't know what to do, but without his powers he was only limited to a few weapons to use without his powers. He charged at his father as his father prepared to shoot another arrow at him until suddenly a bright light emanating from Uryu's cross bracelet glowed and lit the whole room into a blinding white.

_What the?!_

**Inoue **

Inoue sat by her table eating dinner until her mind began to wander.

_Urahara stood beside Inoue._

"_Inoue, did you find the other part of your hair clip?"_

"_Urahara-san, no I couldn't."_

"_I see. Inoue, because of your situation, I know fully well that Tsubaki cannot fight. Therefore, I cannot allow you to fight in this war Inoue."_

"_Urahara-san."_

"_Inoue, those were your only source of powers. I understand you want to fight but because of your situation, you are vulnerable. So you are not to participate in this war. Forget everything, forget Soul Society and Ichigo."_

"_I understand. Thank you Urahara-san … for being honest." Inoue slowly turned around to run as Chad tried to go after but was stopped by Urahara._

Inoue began to sob a little. Remembering what happened. It killed her. Even so, she was still thankful to Urahara. She knew that he helped her, so there's no way she could be angry at him. She stopped crying and focused on something else. Then a thought came across her mind.

She wondered how Ichigo was doing. Last time she saw him, she felt he had a different aura. She wasn't sure what happened but the more she thought about it the more she became upset. She worried about him all the time but it seemed like he never notices her. She knew that the one person Ichigo would notice was …

_Rukia._

Inoue was jealous and she herself knew it. She didn't want to be jealous of her because they were good friends.

At this point, she knew she didn't have a chance against Rukia. Ichigo cares about Rukia the way she wanted him to care about her but it will never happen. She now just wished that they both could be happy.

Her mind drifted again but this time she thought about Ishida. She wondered how he was doing. Inoue figured out that he planned to distance himself from everyone just like when he first met them. He never talked to them again after that one day when he walked her home.

That day, Ishida was talkative until when they reached her front door he became serious and before she could ask him anything, she was in his arms. Her face warmed up, confused by his actions as Ishida released her, apologized and left. That was the last time they ever talked or seen each other.

Inoue stood up and prepared to go to her kitchen when a breeze swept through the air. She turned around and headed straight for the window.

_What? The window wasn't open._

She shut the window and turned around. Standing before her were two people. Her eyes widen when she saw them.

"Aizen…"


	5. Chapter 5

**Through It All**

**Urahara's Shop**

Not long Karin was staring out the window. Urahara had told her he would be going out to attend to some things and that she was not allowed to leave his shop until he returned. She stared out the window and saw that the moon was out and shining.

_Otou-san and Yuzu will worry if I don't go home. Then again, Toshiro, Rukia, and Matsumoto aren't going back either. They probably think I'm with them._

Karin looked around her and she noticed that Renji and the others still didn't wake up. She stared at her hands and wondered.

_What the hell was I doing earlier? Where did that massive reiatsu come from? I can't believe that, that was me._

Karin stood up and left the room. She needed to go outside and catch some fresh air. She headed towards the back door so no one could follow her. The only place she could think of going is the roof.

As Karin walked on the roof, looking for a comfortable spot, another person arrived on the same spot at the same time.

"Kurosaki?"

"Toshiro?" they said at the same time.

Slowly Karin sat down and closed her eyes Hitsugaya did the same thing. Neither said a word and just stared at the sky.

**Kurosaki Household**

Somewhere in the house, a girl was sobbing. "Otou-san! Karin-chan isn't home yet." She cried as Isshin hugged Yuzu.

"It's okay, daddy will make it better! When Karin-chan comes home I will punish her so she won't go out again."

Isshin suddenly frowned as he stared at the entrance to the house. "Yuzu-chan, why don't you go upstairs and go to bed. I'll take care of everything here."

"Are you sure Otou-san?" she asked as she wiped her tears.

"Yes, now run along Yuzu-chan." Yuzu quickly got up and walked upstairs to her room.

Isshin went to the entrance and said, "What a pleasant surprise … Urahara Kisuke."

**Inoue**

"So in other words I have no choice." Inoue said. "Precisely." Aizen said with a smirk.

Inoue glanced up to one of the counter tables that had a picture of her, Ichigo, Chad, Rukia, and Ishida. Aizen followed her gaze, smirked and stood up. Ulquiorra walked behind her incase she suddenly attacks.

Aizen caught her eyes and stared deeply into them. Inoue glared but then soften as tears streamed down her cheeks. Finally, what seemed like years was only a mere two minutes, Inoue walked towards Aizen and grasp his hand.

"I … I'll do it." Aizen smirked as Inoue walked towards the picture and turned it over.

_Gomenasai minna._

Inoue turned and followed Aizen and Ulquiorra. (Gomenasai minna means I'm sorry everyone.)

**Kurosaki Household**

"I see. So my Karin-chan said that?"

"Of course."

Silence.

"Isshin-san … no matter what you do, you can't escape the fact that you were once a shinigami. You definitely can't escape the decisions your children make. Ichigo is now with the Vizards training to suppress his hollow self. Yuzu is starting to feel and maybe even see hollows. As for Karin, she may not have a Zanpakuto, but I assure you she is strong enough not having one. I cannot guarantee whether she'll choose to become a shinigami or not, but I can tell you this, Karin will become stronger, she may even try to surpass Ichigo if she could, she will fight and grow and no matter what the circumstance is, she will fight to protect those she love and care for."

Urahara took a sip from his cup. Isshin stared at Urahara and closed his eyes.

"You do not need to hide. Kon."

Kon walked to the table as Isshin and Urahara stared at Kon. "Are you going to let her stay with Urahara?" Kon asked as Urahara took another sip staring at Isshin. Isshin took a deep breath.

"There is no choice is there? It's Karin's decision and for that I respect her. I will let her stay with you, however, Urahara, Kon do not tell her that I am a shinigami as well. I think it is enough that she knows that Ichigo is a shinigami."

"I understand. Well Isshin-san, Kon … I must be on my way. Karin-chan will bite my head off if I do not return."

Isshin laughed.

"They are similar," Said Urahara. Isshin stared up at Urahara. "like brother like sister. Ichigo and Karin are truly siblings. Well… I'll see you later." Urahara turned to leave as Isshin continued to stare at his cup.

Kon stared at Isshin. "Ano, Isshin-san … What's wrong?"

Isshin faced Kon who sweat dropped as Isshin reverts from being serious to a dumb ass.

"What do I tell Yuzu!!"

Isshin ran to the mural of Masaki and began crying a river of tears as Kon hopped on a piece of cardboard box floating by and grabbed a spoon and paddled away. "Hn…and this is a captain level shinigami? …che!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Through It All**

**The Ishidas**

Uryu opened his eyes and saw that the room was destroyed. Pieces of the ceiling were on the floor. He looked around and saw his father on the floor. Uryu looked at his wrist and saw his bracelet. It was glowing.

_Did …did I …do this?_

He wasn't sure but he needed to see if he got his powers back. Uryu's father began to shift positions trying to stand up. Now was his chance to try to shoot an arrow at his father. Uryu took his stance and pointed his fingertips towards Ryuken. Standing sideways, Uryu pulled his right arm back as if he was pulling the string of his bow. Suddenly Uryu felt a surge of reiatsu flow through him.

Uryu focused on his target. He drew a deep breath and then sparks began to emerge from his fingertips.

_I can see it. It's working. I just have to push a little more._

Uryu pushed harder and harder as his reiatsu began to form an arrow. Soon his bow started to form as well.

_Just a little more._

He gathered more of his reiatsu and his bow and arrow became solid and bright. Uryu stared at Ryuken and repeated,

"I'm not a disgrace …"

He released the arrow at Ryuken as he tried to get up and dodge it but instead got hit with the arrow. Uryu's father stared at Uryu as he fell.

_Hn … he got his powers back._

Uryu collapsed on the floor and breathed deeply in and out.

_My power is back. Grandfather, did see that? My powers returned._

Uryu smiled and then passed out.

**Abandoned Building**

"Okay everyone that's it for the day!" Hiyori yelled. Everyone grumbled and headed to their rooms. (Do they have rooms?)

Ichigo put his Zanpakuto back as he stared at the moon.

_I wonder how everyone is doing._

Ichigo stood staring at the full moon, his mind went back to the last time he saw Karin. Karin had known that he was a shinigami. She was about to confront him but then he left her. Since then he never spoke to her.

He didn't know what was going on out there but he was sure somehow, that everyone was okay.

Little did anyone know, only one person wasn't truly alright. That person was Inoue.

"Oi! Don't just stand there. You look like some mental retarded monster." Shinji said.

Ichigo's eye twitched as he grabbed Shinji's collar. Shinji stared at Ichigo. Then he saw that Ichigo wasn't pissed. Ichigo stared back at Shinji then shoved him aside. He walked away as everyone in the room gazed at Ichigo. He didn't even deny or yell back at Shinji. That meant something was wrong.

**Urahara's Shop**

"Mr. Freeloader! Get up! Urahara wants to speak with you!" Jinta hollered at Renji who was ignoring him. "Ano Abarai-san Urahara-san would like everyone to go into the living room." Ururu said.

Chad glanced at them and got up to go to the living room. He stopped for a second and noticed that Karin's futon was empty. "She is not here?" Chad asked Ururu.

Ururu shrugged, she didn't know where she was. "I think she went home already."

Pretty soon everyone was sitting around the table except for Hitsugaya and Karin.

"Urahara, do you think we should wait for Karin and Hitsugaya-Taichou?" asked Rukia. Urahara noticed this and said, "I'll give them ten minutes and if they aren't here we'll all go look for them."

"I wonder where they could be." Ururu sighed.

Matsumoto smiled, and simply said, " They are probably out watching the sky." Everyone looked at her. "What do you mean?" Rukia asked. "Nothing really. Just what I said they are probably watching the sky."

Matsumoto smiled as she thought about how she followed her Taichou a few weeks ago and saw Karin and Hitsugaya watching the sky together.

"_Why do you come here?" Karin asked and her Taichou answered, "It's the only place where I could watch the sky …It brings back memories."_

"_Memories…?" Karin and Hitsugaya continued to stare at the sky together._

That little blissful moment lead Matsumoto thinking about hooking them up together. She knew that even though Karin had yelled at her Taichou, they would still talk to each other. Ten minutes. That's all they had until the whole group would have to fetch them if they didn't show up.

**On the Roof**

Karin began playing with her fingers as she laid down on the roof.

"Toshiro?"

"Hai."

"I'm … sorry I yelled at you earlier."

"Hn…"

"I just … want to be able to protect my family."

Silence befalls them until Hitsugaya spoke.

"Kurosaki…"

"Hai."

"Earlier, you said I would understand you the most in failing to protect someone. How do you know if I failed to protect someone?"

"I _don't_ know."

"What?" he asked her confusedly.

"Toshiro, I … it was in your eyes." Karin blushed when she realized what she said.

Not far from them, the group decided to go look for them. Deciding that they should at least listen to Matsumoto and see if she was right, they all went to the roof and saw the two people they were looking for were actually there.

Jinta was about to say something but then Renji covered his mouth and motioned for everyone to hide somewhere. Yup … they decided to eavesdrop.

Hitsugaya sat up and said, "What do you mean?"

Karin sat up as well as she said, "You didn't need to tell me to know that you failed to protect someone important to you. Behind that ugly face of yours," Hitsugaya glared at her, "your eyes gave it away. I saw that when you decided that I shouldn't train, I saw that you made that decision not because you thought I would get in the way, but because you're scared. Maybe I'm wrong and reading into this, but Toshiro, when I look at you, I see sadness, pain, hate, and determination."

Karin was now staring at Hitsugaya. Then she laughed. Hitsugaya looked at her and glared. "What's so funny? I don't see how seeing pain and all is funny."

"Sorry … I'm not laughing at you. It's just, I never thought I'd ever have a conversation this serious with you. Also the fact that, I guess, I'm still a kid. Don't you think it seems weird?"

Hitsugaya stared at her then smirked.

"I didn't think you had feelings that deep for me." Hitsugaya smirked and faced her.

"Karin…chan…" saying her first name intentionally to see how she'd react.

Karin turned her head facing the direction of where the others where hiding, she blushed. Then yelled.

Matsumoto, Rukia, and Urahara were trying to hold it in and not laugh at the two of them flirting er… talking to each other.

"Don't get so cocky. I was merely saying how I knew you would understand me. Besides who said I have feelings for a midget like you!"

Hitsugaya yelled back telling her that he wasn't a midget.

Suddenly Hitsugaya looked up at the sky and frowned. "You're right I did fail to protect someone and … I regret it. Because I wasn't strong enough, she's now confined and traumatized. Others would label her mental but even so, I couldn't protect her.

The group frowned. They all know whom Hitsugaya was talking about. Momo Hinamori.

"But," he continued, "What's done is done. I'm going to fight Aizen and make sure he pays for hurting her."

"Toshiro, I see that she is really important to you. Don't mind me asking but was she your girlfriend?"

Hitsugaya was surprised and blushed as he thought about Hinamori being his girl friend. Karin realized it was too personal to ask and apologized.

"Not that I care but the way you described it I just figured … well … was she your sister? Or even mother?"

"No. She _was_ my best friend." He said sadly.

Karin stared at the sky avoiding Hitsugaya's face. She knew he was crying. Even though he really wasn't physically crying. His soul was dying each minute they talked about Hinamori.

_He said was. So they aren't best friends anymore. What happened?_

Hitsugaya spoke breaking her thoughts, "Because of Aizen, we're no longer best friends. A few days ago even before I followed you here, I spoke to her. She kept telling me that it wasn't Aizen's fault. We got into a verbal fight and she … she ended our friendship. I tried to talk to her again but she didn't want to talk to me. She told me that anyone, who is Aizen's enemy or is against him, is against her. That's how it ended. We're no longer … friends."

Hitsugaya sounded like he hated Hinamori but to Karin she knew better. Hitsugaya was like that. He has a hard time expressing how he feels. He sounded angry but he really wasn't. He was sad and hurt. He was slowly dying.

Although nobody saw it but Karin, a small tear escaped from his eye, gliding softly down his cheek.

Right then and there, Karin knew that she wanted to see him smile. Not that stupid smirk that pisses her off, although she did find it somewhat cute but that's not the point. The point was, she wanted to see him smile. A true smile. One that revealed happiness and content. She hated his fake smile. She hated seeing him sad. Never in her wildest dreams would she ever expect to be this intimate with Hitsugaya.

But she shrugged it off as she absentmindedly stood up and walked in front of Hitsugaya. Hitsugaya stared at her strangely with another single tear slowly falling. In a blink of an eye Hitsugaya felt a pair arms wrap right around him which he fit perfectly into and looked up as he heard her say, "It's okay to cry you know. Just let it go."

Hitsugaya didn't say anything but just placed his head into Karin's chest and slowly he began to shake which turned into sobbing.

From afar, Ururu began to cry as Jinta's eyes watered. Matsumoto never really knew anything about Hitsugaya's personal life and now just learning something she didn't know about her Taichou affected her.

"I've never seen him cry."

Matsumoto continued to stare at the two young people, mind racing, taking in the fact that the snow-colored haired captain is able to cry and has actually been through a tough time and not one of them even noticed it but Karin.

Urahara told everyone they should be heading down and enough was enough. They already listen to enough to understand what was going on.

As everyone left the roof, Hitsugaya and Karin remained together never letting go of each other.

**Living Room**

As Ururu's sobs subsided, Rukia glanced at everyone's sadden faces. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. They can't know that we were up there. That might make Hitsugaya-Taichou even more upset since he only told Karin-chan about well you know what I mean."

"It's sad," Ururu said, "How could I have failed to notice …" Matsumoto said.

After a few minutes of silence and mind wander, the group felt two reiatsus heading their direction.

"Everyone act natural." Urahara said.

The door slid open and Karin walked in followed by Hitsugaya. Karin stared at everyone in the room. She knew something was going on but didn't bother to say anything about it. She sat down beside Rukia and said, "Urahara-san, I have to go home."

"I've already fixed that."

Karin stared at him and motioned him to continue. "I talked to you father –

"You what?!"

"Now Karin-chan, just calm down and I'll explain. I've already spoken to your father and I told him that you'll be going away with some club members at your school. I made sure that he believed me also. So do not worry. Your father will also talk to Yuzu-chan. Now, since everyone is here, I'd like to get to the point. Karin, I'll be training you for a few more weeks, however, I will then send you to Soul Society, and there, the rest of your training will be held there with some of my friends."

Karin nodded but then Urahara continued.

"There is more, when you go to Soul Society, you have a choice to become a shinigami or not. I decided to give you a heads up so that way you won't have any trouble deciding when you get there. If you choose to be a shinigami, you will be taught thoroughly to become a shinigami and how to use your powers. If you choose not to, once the war is over you will no longer be able to go back to Soul Society or have anything to do with us. I ask you now, do you still wish to go on and train with us? There is no turning back."

Karin looked around her and thought.

"Yes. I'm not backing down." Urahara nodded, "I see, well everyone it's late and you all have to wake up early. So goodnight and sweet dreams."

Everyone went to go to bed as Karin stood up Hitsugaya suddenly grabbed her hand. Karin turned around as Hitsugaya sheepishly said thank you and walked away.

Karin stared at the empty space that Hitsugaya had occupied and slowly her lips curled up into a small smile.


	7. Chapter 7

**Through It All**

**Urahara's Shop (training area)**

"Argh!" _Damn it! I'm almost out of energy. I can barely stand up._

It's been a few weeks since Karin officially agreed to train with Urahara. As the weeks went by Karin became stronger and stronger. She was able to control her reiatsu so that whenever a hollow or menos was around she could suppress her reiatsu and she wouldn't draw too much attention to them.

She looked around her trying to track Renji down. He suppressed his reiatsu so she wouldn't be able to feel him. Instead she tried to hear where he was since she couldn't see him. It was one of these days when Urahara would block at least one of her senses. Today was her eye sight. He had tied two layers of black clothe over her eyes so she could train without seeing anything.

Karin listened around her and finally felt a change in the wind's flow. She rapidly turned to her left and swung her bokken at Renji. Both their weapons connected to each other and caused a large explosion on the training grounds. Rocks and dirt flew everywhere as the explosion ended. Panting Karin took off the cloth from her eyes and collapsed on the ground.

"Okay. We're done for the day. Well, I'll give you a day off tomorrow. So rest up Karin-chan!" Urahara said as he walked up the stairs.

Karin rose from the ground as Renji took her left arm and draped it over his shoulder helping her to her feet.

"You're becoming stronger." Renji said to Karin then dragged her up the stairs.

_Where is she getting all this reiatsu?_

Renji stumbled for a second as he shifted Karin and realized that she was passed out. Renji grunted and muttered something that sounded like 'like brother like sister' and continued up the stairs quietly.

**Abandoned Building**

"Ahchoo!" Ichigo rubbed his nose as he continued swinging his Zanpakuto at Shinji. Ichigo's eyes bulged out of its socket as he almost got his arm ripped off his body. He and Shinji were fighting with each other so hard that even that small sneeze almost cost his life.

"Oi! You're getting slow! Pick up your pace!" Shinji yelled.

"Shut up!" Ichigo replied. Shinji slammed his foot on Ichigo's face as Ichigo smacked his Zanpakuto into Shinji's face causing him to fly across a million miles away.

"Eh? Neh Hiyori, Ichigo seems really into it today." Love said to Hiyori who just rolled her eyes and lied down to take a nap.

"So." Hiyori muttered. She continued to stare at Ichigo. Ichigo was getting better and better at handling his hollow. Pretty soon he wouldn't need them anymore and he'll just leave them. But until then she'll make sure his life was a living hell until he leaves. Hiyori closed her eyes and smirked.

**Ishidas**

"Where are you going?" Ryuken asked his son. "None of your concern." Uryu replied. "Are you going to see your 'friends'?"Ryuken asked, referring to Ichigo and Rukia.

Uryu didn't say anything but just stood up and left his father's home. Uryu decided that he would train himself for now on now that his powers returned. He no longer needed his father. Although he would admit that if he trained with his father, he would definitely become stronger. But he just didn't want to deal with him.

Uryu walked around Karakura searching for an empty area or some abandoned building to continue training. Suddenly he stopped and looked at one of the apartments. He was now standing before Inoue's apartment. Inoue wasn't a shinigami, so that meant that he could still talk to her. Thinking that his training could wait a while, he went straight to Inoue's apartment and checked to see if she was there.

As he was faced to face with Inoue's door he went to knock on it when it suddenly opened. Feeling that something was off, Uryu proceeded to go in. He felt two reiatsus and ran inside to see if anything happened to Inoue. Suddenly he heard two people talking.

"I don't get it Taichou, what could have happened to her. She wasn't home for these past few weeks and I definitely know that she couldn't have possibly stayed at Tatsuki's house for this long." Said a female.

"Matsumoto, do you remember the last time you saw Inoue?" Hitsugaya asked.

_Inoue is missing?_

Uryu thought as he revealed himself to Hitsugaya and Matsumoto.

"Where's Inoue-san?" Ishida asked as he walked up to Hitsugaya and Matsumoto. Ishida stared at the pair when he realized that they were both shinigami. He knew he wasn't allowed to associate with any shinigami so he tried to be fast. All he wanted to know was what happened to Inoue.

Hitsugaya stared at Ishida and then realized that he was the Quincy that was with Ichigo when he went to Soul Society to put a stop to Rukia's execution.

"That's what we are trying to figure out." He said to Ishida. Hitsugaya walked towards Ishida and asked, "When was the last time you talked to her?"

"It was about a month ago."

Matsumoto gasped a bit before saying, "A month ago? I thought you're good friends with her. You really haven't talked to her for that long?"

Ishida nodded but then turned to leave until Hitsugaya reached for him. "What's your purpose?"

"What do you mean?" Ishida asked.

"What are you going to do now that Inoue is missing?" Hitsugaya stared at the back of Ishida's head.

"I'm going to go look for her."

"Well in that case you can tell us everything you know. We were planning to go look for her as well."

Ishida stared at the floor thinking if he should help them or not. He was restricted to having anything to do with shinigami. But then again, he already has his powers back.

_Should I help them or not?_

Ishida turned around to face Hitsugaya and said, "Last time I saw her was a month ago. I wasn't intending to talk to her again. Especially you shinigami."

Hitsugaya stared at him with interest. "What do you mean?"

Ishida walked to Inoue's table and told Hitsugaya and Matsumoto his story.

"I see. So you're not supposed to have anything to do with us?" Matsumoto asked. Ishida nodded.

"But now that I have my powers back, I think I don't have to listen to my father anymore."

"What if he goes after you?" Matsumoto asked. "I'll deal with that when the time comes. For now what's important is to find Inoue-san."

"Ne, Taichou, what do you think happened to her?"

"I don't know. Well Ishida, if you find out anything just let us know. I owe her for letting Matsumoto and I stay here."

Ishida stood up and nodded as he headed to the door to leave.

_Just what happened to everyone while I was gone? Where could Inoue-san be?_

Ishida thought as he stepped out into the light and looked up at the sky.


	8. Chapter 8

**Through It All**

**Hueco Mundo**

"Why do you still look out the window? It's not like they will come for you." Ulquiorra said passively.

Inoue remained staring out at the sky as she made small gestures with her hand brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I stare because I know they will come. He will come for me."

Ulquiorra glared at her back.

_Stupid human girl. They won't come for her. They probably think that she betrayed them. It's been about two months now and they still haven't come to retrieve her. _

"You should give up. Aizen-sama will make sure that they will be exterminated. No matter what you believe, they won't come. They don't care about you. You are after all, worthless. That Urahara person even told you not to fight in the Winter War. It clearly shows that –

Ulquiorra stumbled as he felt a sting of pain tingling on his right cheek. He looked up and saw Inoue glaring at him with tears in her eyes as she moved her hand closer to her chest and backed up realizing that she had just slapped him across the face.

Ulquiorra frowned and pinned her against the cold hard wall and said, "You are lucky that Aizen-sama requires you to be alive other wise I would have killed you by now. If I were you I'd watch out."

He then let go of her and went to leave the room when he felt her hand on his wrist.

"You're right I am lucky, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to give up. I'll never side with you but even so, I'm not afraid of you. If you have to guard me, from now on you should know that no matter what you say to me I won't ever change my mind." Inoue released her grip on Ulquiorra to let him leave.

As soon as Ulquiorra left the prison cell, Inoue walked to her bed and lied down to think. On the other side of the door, Ulquiorra had a frustrated expression on his face until Grimmjow appeared and began to smirk sadistically.

"Having problems with your 'prisoner'?"

"Hn…," was all Ulquiorra said to Grimmjow before leaving to go see Aizen.

Ulquiorra walked towards the main room where Aizen is always located within Hueco Mundo. As soon as he saw Aizen, Aizen summoned him to come closer.

"How is she?" Aizen asked.

"She still sits beside the window waiting for them to come." Ulquiorra said passively.

"I see. Are you frustrated? Tell me what's on your mind, Ulquiorra." Aizen stared intently at Ulquiorra smiling as if he knew something that nobody knew but him. Ulquiorra looked up at Aizen but quickly looked away.

"Aizen-sama, why must we hold her captive? Why can't we just kill her now?"

"No. We need her powers, also it'll be more entertaining to kill her in front of Kurosaki Ichigo when he arrives."

"You also believe he will come for her?"

"Of course, knowing him, he'll definitely come once he finds out that she's missing. Is that all?"

"Hai, Aizen-sama." Ulquiorra bowed and turned to leave.

For the last two months, Ulquiorra was chosen to watch over Inoue. He didn't think it would be this aggravating to watch over the weak girl. At first, he thought she would be crying all the time and then go crazy but it was different. He never thought she would be the opposite. Ulquiorra walked slowly towards Inoue's cell. He dreaded watching her. He knew that once he stepped in, her mood would change drastically going from upset and defensive to happy and loud.

_How does she do it?_

How is it that he is obviously the enemy and she can still be happy around him, talking to him, trying to befriend him. He didn't understand her. He wasn't sure if she was brave or just plain stupid.

Ulquiorra finally reached the door to her room he slowly hesitated to open the door. Right when he opened the door he expected her to be sitting by the window waiting again, but what he saw was different. He saw her on the floor, head faced down. He quickly ran to her side, checking to see if she was still alive. Ulquiorra turned Inoue over and held her to him. Suddenly her eyes flew open at the touch of Ulquiorra's hand on her forehead.

_She has a fever._

Lately Inoue hasn't been sleeping or eating. All she did was sit and wait by the window. Waiting. She slowly opened her eyes to look at the person who was holding her. She saw him. Inoue lifted her hand and grasped Ulquiorra's shirt holding tightly on to it.

"Ulquiorra?" she asked when suddenly she saw black. Ulquiorra stared at her for a minute and realized that she passed out. He quickly carried her bridal style and left the room to find someone to tend to her. He was upset. He was her care taker and he was supposed to make sure that she was fine and alive until Ichigo arrived in Hueco Mundo. Obviously he almost failed. Now that Inoue acquired a high fever he would have to take extra care of her. But it wasn't that, that was bugging him.

No. Something else was bothering him. He took another glance at Inoue's form and felt somewhat, sad.

_Sad? Why would I be sad? Shouldn't I be happy she has a fever?_

Ulquiorra couldn't explain what it was that was suddenly erupting from within him. What ever it was, it was bothering him. He wanted it to end. He looked around until finally he found someone that could check up on her.

Back in the main room, Aizen stared at a crystal ball and grinned evilly as he watched Ulquiorra carry Inoue to one of the medical rooms with a frustrated face. He continued to grin evilly when Tosen said, "It's getting close. Ulquiorra is starting to be aware of his feelings for her."

"True." Aizen continued staring at the ball observing Ulquiorra's every move.

**Urahara Shop**

Karin stared around the shop. It had been two months since she stayed with Urahara. Now she's back. Her training is going better than anyone ever thought. Karin now had a Zanpakuto strapped to her waist. The moment she arrived in Soul Society she had made a decision to become a shinigami. However, because of the upcoming war, she didn't have to attend any of the classes and just went straight to life and death trainings that a person who was already a shinigami would do.

She never thought it would be extremely difficult with other shinigami. But she did get it easy every now and then since Hitsugaya and Matsumoto trained her. As she recalled her trainings with different shinigami she remembered that training with Zaraki, Ikkaku, and Byakuya were the worst. Sometimes training with Hitsugaya was like that too, but that was only when he was pissed off.

Now that she thought about it, why was Hitsugaya always taking it easier with her then when he trained with other people.

She didn't know why but it frustrated her.

_Does he think I'm not worth training?_

She couldn't help but think that he was only going easy on her because she wasn't strong enough.

_Hn…well you know what?! I can kick his ass any day._

With that set, Karin grinned and got up feeling her new Zanpakuto. Then she frowned.

_I wonder how Ichi-nii will take it when he finds out that I've become a shinigami also. He'll probably just yell at me and then give me a two hour lecture. But then again, he could have changed. I haven't seen him in like what, three months? _

Deep in thought Karin didn't notice that she was going to walk right into the door until a flash of white pushed her out of the way making sure she didn't walk right into the door. Karin blinked and drew her Zanpakuto thinking someone was attacking her. Standing before her was Hitsugaya glaring at her.

"Watch where you're going next time." He said.

Karin wanted to wipe that stupid smirk of his and prepared herself to yell at him when Matsumoto ran in the room and looked distressed. Ishida followed suit as she told her Taichou what happened.

"Matsumoto, what's wrong?" Hitsugaya asked worriedly.

"I've found her!" Hitsugaya and Karin's eyes widen as they realized what she was talking about.

"Where is Inoue?" Hitsugaya asked, anxious to know where Inoue was.

"She is in Hueco Mundo. Aizen took her there and is now holding her captive. I don't really know if this is true but," Matsumoto hesitated to continue but she continued anyway, "it seems that she is on Aizen's side now. She is currently Aizen's healer. But that is all I know." Matsumoto struggled to look at anyone else. For the next few minutes, the four of them just sat in silence thinking about what to do next.

From a distance not to far from them, Urahara stood in the hallway recalling whether telling Inoue to leave and not fight was really a good idea. He knew that either way something like this was going to happen. Brushing that thought aside he walked into the room with a stupid smile plastered on his face.

"eh? What's wrong everyone? You all look dead." Urahara said in a singsong voice. "Um Urahara-san," Karin began, "Inoue is in Hueco Mundo."

Urahara stared at them and saw that they were all sad. "I see. That's too bad." Karin looked at Urahara incredulously. She never really knew Inoue, but from what she's heard, Inoue seemed like a totally nice person.

"How could you just say that?!" Karin yelled. "Aizen took an innocent person and she might be tortured there!" Unable to control herself she fumed for she never lost control and now she was at boiling point. She swiftly stood up and left the shop.

Matsumoto looked sadly at everyone as Urahara said, "She'll get over it. For now, I want to know the details on Karin-chan. It's been two months since she's been here. How is she doing?"

"She's undoubtedly becoming stronger everyday. I think she may be able to match up to Ichigo at this point. Although there is one thing that I'm uncertain about," Hitsugaya paused as the other three stared at him, waiting for him to continue, "lately, she's been having difficulty concentrating. She's not normally like that, but, when she fights she's fine to a point where starts talking nonsense. I don't understand what's going on with her. Whenever I ask her, she says she doesn't know what you're talking about. She doesn't remember what she was just thinking of at that time."

Urahara nods as he listened to Hitsugaya informing him of what's been going on during their two months of absence. When Hitsugaya was finished Urahara said that he'll go and find out what Karin's condition was. He suddenly turned to Ishida and asked, "How are your powers coming along?"

Ishida balled his fist _not_ in an angry way, and said that it was fine and that he should be prepared by the time the Winter War arrives.

"I'm fine but I don't know how long I can keep meeting with you before my father actually comes after me." He said.

"About that, Ishida-kun, do you plan to go to Hueco Mundo with Ichigo?" Urahara asked. Ishida nodded and said that he will be going to help save Inoue. With that, Urahara smiled and said, "Okay. Well in that case, I want you to go with Karin to Soul Society and help her train. It might actually be challenging for her since she has been training with no one but shinigamis. Even though these are very strong shinigamis, it might help her remember that her enemies won't always be a shinigami. She'll have to get used to your fighting style."

Ishida nodded then stood up to leave.

**Somewhere in Karakura Town**

By now Karin would be somewhere in Karakura Town. She decided she'd go pay a visit to her family, but then she remembered that they didn't know exactly why she left and believed that she'd be gone for about half a year. Maybe even more depending how long the Winter War would last. However, this didn't stop her from standing in front of her home. After taking one last glance she began to turn and leave when a voice was calling out to her. In a blink of an eye her twin sister can be seen glomping her.

"Karin-chan! What are you doing here?! I thought you won't be back for another few months." Yuzu said as she tightened her arms around Karin. Karin stared at her twin and just smiled.

"I decided I'd come pay a visit, but I can't stay too long… uh… the other club members might get angry. Um the club decided to visit their families for a day before leaving again." Karin tried to explain to her why she was back. Yuzu seemed to believe it so she sighed.

"Ne, Karin-chan, where's Shiro-nii? Wasn't he with you?" Yuzu asked.

Before Karin could answer, a voice spoke up. "I am, I just needed to stop by somewhere. I told her I'd meet up with her at home." Hitsugaya said.

Soon the three of them walked into the house only to be glomped by Isshin. Isshin cried out in joy when he saw his shinigami daughter with his 'son-in-law to be' back home with him.

"Karin-chan!! Shiro-chan! You're both home already?! OH! Give me a warm and loving hug –

Karin's fist made contact with Isshin's left cheek sending him across the room.

_He's still the same old goat._

Karin smiled knowing she was back home while Hitsugaya and Yuzu sweat dropped.

That day was a reunion for Karin and of course Hitsugaya. Yuzu made so much food and invited Urahara and everyone living in his shop.

Jinta stared at Yuzu and blushed throughout the whole party. Renji and Rukia were arguing with each other and having an arm wrestle. Isshin was singing and dancing with Matsumoto, making a fool out of himself as usual. Ishida was seated next to Karin, Hitsugaya, Urahara, Chad, and Ururu. He stared at everyone enjoying themselves as he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose.

Karin was glaring at her otou-san, ready to bash his head on the wall until Isshin suddenly said he had to make an announcement.

"Okay everyone listen up!" Isshin said happily.

"To this day, I have raised three beautiful children of mine. One being absent for now but who cares right now. As I was saying," Karin looked at her otou-san and was about to punch him when Matsumoto who was now drunk clapped and hooted telling him to continue. Hitsugaya's eye twitched and made a note to self to never let her drink again.

"I am proud to say that through the years I've watched them all grow. However, one of them has brought me great pleasure to say that …," Isshin can now be seen shedding a single tear. He rubbed his eye and continued, "That …they will be tying the knot! From this day on, I will now have a new son in the Kurosaki family! Hitsugaya Toshiro, I hereby give you permission to marry my beautiful Karin-chan! May you live happily forever together and bare me many cute grandsons and granddaughters!" Isshin now cried a river of tears in happiness as he ran to the Masaki Mural.

"My darling Masaki!! We can finally have grandchildren and have a new son into our family! Aren't you excited?!"

Karin exploded and bashed her otou-san's head through the window, blushing furiously. Soon everyone in the room hooted and said 'aw' at Karin and Hitsugaya. Matsumoto slapped Hitsugaya on the back and yelled drunkenly, "Aw… my _little_ _Shiro-chan_ is finally getting married… 'hick' hee hee." Matsumoto hiccupped and giggled taking another bottle of sake and drained it.

Urahara teased both Karin and Hitsugaya continuously until everyone passed out on the floor. Throughout the party, everyone would try to put Karin and Hitsugaya together with everything they were doing from seating them beside each other during dinner to singing karaoke as duet partners.

Karin grew angry with each action everyone took to try to get her and Hitsugaya together or at least catch them in a very 'lovey-dovey' moment, and thought enough was enough. As they all ate dinner and Isshin discussed about how happy he was about Karin's marriage to Hitsugaya, Karin slammed her chopsticks down and yelled, "Okay! Enough! I'm not marrying the midget!" Hitsugaya was about to say something about the word midget when a piece of meat went flying at his face when Karin slammed her fist down hitting a plate by accident instead of the table.

Everyone gaped at Hitsugaya waiting for him to lash out at them. Nothing happened. Karin was getting ready to sit back down when a sushi roll smacked right in her forehead. Karin growled and began throwing raw beef at Hitsugaya like a machine gun and hit Ishida, Jinta, Chad, Ururu, and Rukia in the process. Within a few minutes, everyone was throwing food everywhere at each other.

After about an hour of randomly throwing food Karin grouped up all the girls and attacked the boys. It was war.

"Charge!" Karin yelled with a bowl over her head for cover. All the girls were murdering the boys. Urahara ordered all the boys to flip over the table and hide behind it.

"We need to attack! They are killing us!" Jinta exclaimed. "Well what do you want us to do?!" Renji yelled.

"If only Ichigo was here then we'd have an advantage despite that we have more men here then women." Ishida said wiping the wasabi off of his glasses. Chad leaned on the table and stared at the food lying on the floor. He gave each guy a piece incase something were to happen.

"I've got it!" Isshin said excitedly. All the boys stared at him and huddled together to tell them his plan. After about a minute or two of discussing 'the plan' Isshin yelled out, "Go!"

Soon Ishida jumped up and ran across the room taking a huge risk by crossing the girls territory and stealing their sushi. Chad prepared to back Ishida up but Ururu threw something huge at him and knocked him out.

"Karin-chan! Ishida-nii is stealing our sushi!" Yuzu yelled turning Karin to show her that Ishida lifted the plate and ran.

All the girls stood up and Rukia found a piece of sukiyaki and threw it on the floor where Ishida was about to step. Ishida slipped and fell to the floor, he quickly slammed the plate down and pushed it towards the boys, and Hitsugaya jumped from behind the table, took the plate of sushi, and flipped back over behind the table.

Matsumoto and Rukia jumped on Ishida, pulled out a random rope, and tied him to a chair.

Yuzu stood next to Matsumoto, Ururu, and Rukia handing them a bowl of udon mixed with shrimp, walked next to Karin, and gave her a cake that was suppose to be eaten after dinner.

"Matsumoto, Rukia-nee, cover for me! Yuzu," Karin called, "Hai Karin-chan!"

"Grab all the wasabi and stand behind Rukia-nee and cover her, and Ururu stand by Chad and make sure he's not pretending to be knocked out."

"Hai Karin-chan!" Ururu and Yuzu said cheerily.

Karin stared at the men while she pushed Ishida to the center of the room and held the cake in front of his face and smirked.

"Hand over all your food, or he get's it!" Karin yelled across the floor. Ishida gulped as the cake slowly moved toward his face.

"Never!" Renji yelled. Karin smirked. "In that case, I have no choice."

**In a matrix mode**, Karin slowly tried to shove the cake into Ishida's face while he was struggling to break free. Still in **matrix** **mode**, Urahara and Isshin cried out a deep, long, and loud 'NO!' as Hitsugaya shook his head at Renji, both getting up and ran around Karin and Ishida to disarm Yuzu, Rukia, and Matsumoto. Isshin and Urahara jumped up desperately running to save Ishida while the other two disarm the three girls. Jinta ran straight for Ururu but slipped on a puddle of sake and bashed himself against Ururu's head and both were knocked out. Karin being distracted by looking up at Hitsugaya and Renji felt Urahara grab her wrist while her otou-san grabbed the rope to untie Ishida. At the same time, Hitsugaya pulled the bowl from Matsumoto but she pulled it back and the udon went everywhere splashing the soup on Hitsugaya's eyes.

Hitsugaya screamed and fell backwards crashing into Urahara who slipped and knocked Isshin, who crashed into Ishida flipping the chair over with him still tied to it. Ishida and the chair banged into Renji who was holding the wasabi that Yuzu tried to throw at him and flung it at Rukia by accident, Rukia slipped on the wasabi on the floor and quickly grabbed Yuzu and Matsumoto pulling them both down with her but accidentally pushing Karin.

Karin flew forward, threw the cake up in the air, and crashed into Hitsugaya who was now opening his eyes and the both of them fell in a heap on the floor.

**No longer in matrix mode**, everyone groaned in pain. Everyone began to disentangle themselves when Isshin squealed like a high school girl in love. Every one turned there head to where Isshin was pointing his finger and squealing gleefully.

A few inches away from them was Hitsugaya lying right on top of Karin in a very awkward position as well as their noses touching and both staring at each other.

Everyone began to smirk until Karin slammed her hand on Hitsugaya's forehead and pushed him off her. Both blushing madly walked away from each other. Suddenly out of nowhere, Matsumoto noticed something.

"Eh?... Where's the cake?" everyone looked around but then something fell from the ceiling landing with a 'Splat' right on Hitsugaya's white hair.

Trying not to make any noise everyone was holding in their laughter, suppressing it by looking away or covering their mouth. Hitsugaya's eye twitched and that was it. Hitsugaya had cracked.

"MATSUMOTO!!!!" Hitsugaya screamed so loud that the whole neighborhood could hear him.

**hey i hope you like the whole slow motion part with everyone falling everywhere and stuff. Poor Shiro-chan his once beautiful hair has cake all over it now. But i bet he'd taste great. heheheh.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Through It All**

**Abandoned Building**

For the next three months, every one has been busying themselves preparing for the Winter War. With only three weeks left until the war, many of them were giving their all, hoping that they would be prepared for the day the war begins.

"I guess this is it," an orange-haired shinigami said. "Yeah, but don't think I'll miss you monster." Said a blond boy.

Ichigo stood up and prepared to leave the building. Before leaving he said his goodbyes to everyone. A bright red mark can be seen across Ichigo's right cheek.

_Damn, I leave them all and the only thing she could do was kick me in the face._

Ichigo rubbed his cheek as Hiyori smirked, proud to land a final sidekick on Ichigo's face with her foot.

Slowly and carefully, Ichigo turned and walked out of the abandoned building.

It's been a few hours now and Ichigo has been wandering around Karakura Town. He thought about going home, but the thought about him going home one day and then leaving again might worry his family more. Then again, they might be relieved to know that he's actually alive. It was set, he was going to go back home.

Ichigo turned to his left and walked straight home

**Urahara's Shop**

"Eh? You're back again?" Urahara said to the three shinigami and a Quincy.

Hitsugaya frowned and said, "It was three against one. The three of them wanted to come back one more time before leaving to go to Hueco Mundo."

Karin and Matsumoto smirked while Ishida pushed his glasses up and somewhat smirked. Urahara grinned.

"How long do you plan to stay here?" he asked.

"Probably for a week." Karin answered playing with her Zanpakuto.

"Well, now that we're here, time to do some shopping!" Matsumoto said gleefully. She quickly got up and left with Hitsugaya yelling at her only to be ignored.

Ishida got up and said that he had to go take care of some business and left. That left only Karin and Hitsugaya. Karin decided that she would probably go back home and make another excuse of why she was home again just to see her family one last time before heading off to war. With nothing to do, Hitsugaya went with her.

Both of the shinigami got up and walked out of Urahara's shop. They walked in silence through out most of the walk. Karin stared at all the stores and houses she passed by.

_It feels good to be back._

Karin smiled and then realized where they had walked. It was the place where she and Hitsugaya were watching the sky. She took one glance at Hitsugaya and grinned evilly. Out of nowhere, something flew from Karin's hands to Hitsugaya's face.

Hitsugaya glared and looked around to the source that hit him. He looked up at Karin and saw that she was doubling on the ground laughing at him like he was an idiot. Hitsugaya searched around and saw that a soccer ball was slowly rolling away from him. He picked it up looked back at Karin and grinned mischievously.

Karin saw this look and made a run for it. For the next hour, both of them were happily playing with the soccer ball trying to steal it from each other. Karin suddenly tripped on a pebble lying aimlessly on the ground, accidentally kicking the ball from Hitsugaya's foot, and grabbed onto him.

Karin's left hand was now gripping Hitsugaya's shirt by his collar while her right hand was somehow entwined with his left. Hitsugaya's face was just about an inch from her face. Both of them just stared at each other until suddenly an old woman said, "Aw such a cute couple. Rather young but that only makes it more adorable," before walking away.

Karin released her grip from him and blushed. "Um we should get going. I want to see my family."

Hitsugaya looked away blushing, "Yeah… let's get going." Their walk back to the Kurosaki household was in silence until they got in the house.

As Karin stepped into the house she heard laughter and a lot of movement in the house. Karin then heard a voice. A voice she hasn't heard in such a long time. She wasn't sure who it was but then her heart pounded.

_No. It can't be…Ichi-nii?_

Hitsugaya saw the look on her face and he too recognized the voice. He saw Karin quickly run to the living room. As if everything went white, he saw Karin dropped the soccer ball. Everyone's head went up and became silent only hearing the ball roll on the floor stopping in front of _his_ feet.

"I…Ichi-nii…," that was the only thing that left her mouth. Ichigo lifted the ball to his hands and walked up to Karin. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't frowning either. The last time he saw her she was about to confront him but he left her hanging. Ichigo didn't know what to say. Karin broke the silence when she reached for Ichigo for a hug and said, "I'm glad you're still alive."

Ichigo felt his heart beat quicken knowing that she wasn't going to throw a temper tantrum at him. He wrapped his arms around Karin and said, "I'm glad to see you again."

Yuzu and Isshin were in tears as Rukia and Chad rubbed their back. Ishida just looked and smiled at the family reunion.

After Ichigo released Karin, he looked up and saw Hitsugaya. At first he was going to pick him up and throw him somewhere to hide before anyone could catch sight of the Shinigami Taichou, but then he realized something, he came inside the house with Karin. Ichigo was thinking about questioning him right on the spot, but then Isshin interrupted him.

"Shiro-chan! Karin-chan! You're back again?! I'm so glad!" Isshin shot through the air and glomped both Karin and Hitsugaya. Karin threw her otou-san to the side while Ichigo sweat dropped and had his jaw hanging to the floor with his eyes balling out of his head.

"You know each other?!" Ichigo recovered from the shock. It was then Karin realized that she would have to lie to him instead of telling the truth because both her sister and her otou-san were standing by them. Again Isshin took the spot light and said,

"Of course we all know him! My stupid son, Shiro-chan is you're soon to be brother in law! Don't you know, Karin-chan is going to marry him!!" Isshin said putting Ichigo in a headlock.

"No, I don't know! I wasn't here for the past five months!" Ichigo yelled trying to free himself from the headlock.

"Well maybe you should be here more!" Isshin yelled. Then heard a sob escape from Yuzu's lips.

Karin glared at her otou-san and Ichi-nii before yelling at them. "Ichi-nii! Otou-san! Don't talk like that in front of Yuzu!" Isshin let go of Ichigo, ran to his darling Yuzu, and hugged her.

"Yuzu-chan! Forgive me! I didn't know what I was saying. Daddy is really sorry!"

"It's okay otou-san. I forgive you." Yuzu stopped crying and smiled. "Karin-chan, Shiro-nii we just started lunch, please come join us." Yuzu said pulling out chairs for the pair.

Everyone ate happily and talking about mainly anything.

A few hours later, everyone was separated. Yuzu was downstairs cleaning and Isshin was helping her. Rukia was with Ichigo, Chad, and Ishida in his room. Karin was in her room and Hitsugaya was on the roof.

**With Ichigo**

"Okay you guys, … tell me what's been going on. It seems like you guys are pretty close with my family, especially with Toshiro and Karin. What exactly happened while I was gone?" Ichigo asked hurriedly.

"Sorry Ichigo, demo, we can't tell you." Rukia said as she closed her eyes.

Ichigo looked at her angrily, "Why?" he demanded.

"It's not our right to tell you. If you want to know ask Karin or Hitsugaya." Ishida said staring at Ichigo straight in the face. Ichigo looked to Chad hoping he would say something but he said nothing.

None of them said any thing after that.

**The Roof**

Hitsugaya watched the sky as he lay on the roof.

_How long can we keep this up? Ichigo is going to have talk with Karin and me sooner or later. Why don't I just tell him. What's stopping me from telling him._

Hitsugaya thought about Karin. He didn't feel entitled to tell Ichigo anything unless Karin was with him or had permission from her. It never bothered him before. If he wasn't worried about Karin so much he would be in Ichigo's room right now telling him everything he should know, but for some reason he wasn't up to telling Ichigo anything.

He wouldn't admit it to anyone but he felt good knowing that Ichigo didn't know anything and that it was only between Karin and him along with a few other people but he really didn't mind.

_Don't mind? That's and understatement._

He said in his head. Earlier, after lunch was over everyone began to go their separate ways. He saw the way Karin had looked at Ichigo before heading to her room. There was fear and worry written on her face.

He didn't like how she had looked. He wanted to go talk to her but he figured he would give her some privacy plus it would seem weird if he were to just go talk to her out of nowhere and say that he was worried. Now that he thought about it, the last time he actually had a serious conversation with her was when he cried in front of her.

A blush crept on Hitsugaya's face as he thought about how humiliating it was for him to cry in front of Karin no less. But as time went by, that humiliation he felt changed into something else. He wasn't sure what but, he was glad that he was able to cry. He was also glad that it was Karin's arms that he was in and not someone else.

He knew that Karin wouldn't say anything to anyone about him crying. He trusted her and she trusted him.

After a few more seconds of staring at the sky, he got up and left to go back inside.

**Karin's Room **

Karin was lying on her bed.

_Ichi-nii must be really frustrated. I don't know if I should tell him. Either way he's going to find out. Besides, Toshiro and the others might have told him already._

Karin tried to figure out how she would deal with everything. Hitsugaya and her would be staying at her house for the whole week. Knowing that Ichigo is back made her somewhat happy but scared. She was scared that nothing would be the same anymore. She saw the way he looked at her. She saw him staring at Hitsugaya with eyes of anger and frustration.

She didn't want to think about it anymore. She was about to go to her window when there was a knock at her door. Karin stared at the door for a minute debating whether to let the person in or not.

_What if it's Ichi-nii? Should I let them in or should I just pretend I'm sleeping?_

Another knock echoed through the room. Karin walked towards the door fearing that she would see Ichigo behind it.

The doorknob made a soft click noise and swung open. Karin released a breath she didn't even know she held.

She looked at Hitsugaya and let him in her room. She closed the door once Hitsugaya stepped in her room. Somewhere around the corner Yuzu was about to go see if her sister was alright when she saw Hitsugaya beat her to it and walked in her room. Yuzu smiled and turned to go back downstairs to finish the rest of the chores.

Back inside Karin and Hitsugaya were having a staring contest waiting for the other to look away. Neither of them budged. It remained like that until they both started.

"Kurosaki-

"Toshiro-

Karin blinked forgetting about he little staring contest they had and said, "You first."

"Kurosaki," he began while he took a place on her bed, "I've been thinking … maybe its best that we tell Ichigo before the situation becomes more awkward."

Karin stared at him and closed her eyes. "I was wondering when you were going to talk to me about that."

There was a pause before she began to speak again. "Toshiro, do you think he'll be angry with me?"

He didn't say anything as she continued. "Maybe I made the wrong decision in becoming a shinigami. Maybe I should have just listened to you and backed off. Maybe I –

"You didn't make the wrong decision, Kurosaki. Either way, you would have ended up becoming a shinigami. It runs in your blood –

Hitsugaya suddenly stopped realizing what he just said. Karin swiftly grabbed Hitsugaya's hand and stared at him in shock.

"What did you say?"

"I…-

Before he could continue, Karin stood up towering over him. She glared at him for she knew that there was something that she didn't know but he did.

"Kurosaki," deciding that there is no way out, he decided to tell her what he knew, "Having strong powers like the ones that you have right now, don't just come magically. You are able to become a shinigami despite that you are alive because it runs in your blood."

Karin stared at him and told him to continue. "You … Isshin-san is …"

"Is what?! What is my otou-san?!" Karin grabbed hold of Hitsugaya. She knew what he was going to say but she wanted to hear it from him to make sure.

"Isshin-san is … a captain level shinigami." Hitsugaya looked away from Karin not wanting to see her reaction. Then he saw her walk up to her door and swung it open. Ichigo was standing right in front of her with Rukia, Chad, and Ishida pulling his arms to stop him from going in Karin's room.

Everyone stared at the Kurosaki siblings. Karin was about to shed her tears that were forming in her eyes as Ichigo looked like he took a blow to his gut.

They both thought, _Otou-san is a captain level shinigami?_


	10. Chapter 10

**Through It All**

**Hueco Mundo**

_It was bright and sunny outside. The school bell rang and all the students got up and were all in a hurry to go home or hang out with their friends. _

"_Hey I can't walk you home today, I have to stay for the karate club. Is that okay with you?"_

"_Yeah, don't worry about it Tatsuki-chan, I'll be fine on my own."_

"_Are you sure?"_

"_Yes. Don't worry about it."_

"_Okay I'll see you later."_

"_Bye Tasuki-chan!"_

_Tatsuki left the classroom with a smile. Inoue gathered her things and stood up when someone stopped right in front of her._

"_Ishida-kun?" she asked._

"_Ano …Inoue-san, are you free right now?" he asked._

"_Sure why? What's up?"_

"_Um I was thinking, let's go for a walk." _

"_Oh…okay." Inoue smiled at Ishida, Ishida grabbed her book bag as she began to protest but walked ahead any ways._

'_Strange, Ishida-kun is acting weird.' Inoue thought_

_They walked to the park and hung around the swings. After that Inoue gasped, "Ice cream!" she turned her head to Ishida , "Ishida-kun …" Ishida knew she wanted some so he smiled and walked with her to the man selling the ice cream._

_Inoue was going to pay but then she saw Ishida already receiving the change from the man._

"_Mou …Ishida-kun you didn't have to pay," she pouted. Ishida just smiled and said it was alright. They then walked back to the swings and sat on them eating their ice cream. _

_Ishida broke the silence between them, "Thank you for coming with me."_

"_No, thank you!" Inoue said._

_They smiled at each other and continued to talk. Soon Inoue was babbling about all kinds of random things like how it would be cool to drive in a race car and press a button on it that will let her fly and time travel to see her future self as a robot 3000 years later. _

_Ishida smiled and just laughed at the things she came up with. Surprisingly he was rather talkative also. He talked mostly about life and a little bit about his past. He told her about his father and grandfather. He glanced up to see if Inoue was listening and found himself staring at Inoue who was now near tears._

"_What's wrong Inoue-san?" Suddenly she threw her arms around him._

"_Oh Ishida-kun, that's so sad. I'm so sorry."_

"_Uh…its alright, that happened a long time ago."_

"_But still! I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?" she asked_

"_Um …nothing really… I'm just glad that you listened to me and went for a walk with me."_

"_Are you sure?" she asked again._

"_I'm sure."_

_"Ne, Ishida-kun, you should smile more you look good like that. I had a great time with you and maybe we can just go for a walk again ne?"_

_"H... hai... we should." She smiled at Ishida making him blush._

_Later that day Inoue and Ishida silently walked to her house._

'_Something is weird. Ishida-kun is …he smiled and laughed today. He was talking a lot too. Maybe I'm thinking too much. Still, it was really nice to see him how should I say this, happy? Yes happy. It was nice to see him happy.'_

_Inoue stopped what she was thinking when she saw that Ishida stopped walking. She realized that they were standing in front of her apartment. _

"_Arigatou, Inoue for accompanying me today." Ishida stared at Inoue, he knew she was going to ask him what was wrong, but he quickly pulled her into a hug. Inoue didn't ask him what was wrong for she was too shocked about Ishida hugging her now._

_When Inoue finally realized what was going on she saw that Ishida was already 20 feet away from her. Too shocked to even move she continued to watch him walk away. She couldn't speak or even move. Her heart sped up at the thought about what just happen._

'_Ishida-kun, what's wrong?' _

Inoue shot up from her bed.

"It was a dream." Inoue stepped out the bed and saw that she was in a different room.

_How long have I been her now?_

She hoped to wake up in her own room, back in Karakura getting ready to go to school to see Ichigo and the others. But she knew that wasn't going to happen. She looked around her 'new' room.

The door opened and Ulquiorra walked in. He stopped and stared at her. He wasn't expecting her to be awake. Suddenly he felt worried about her. The look on her face made him somewhat afraid.

She looked distressed and was close to crying.

"Ulquiorra… ," Inoue walked up to him. She didn't want to worry him so she smiled brightly.

Ulquiorra knew better. He knew she didn't want him to be upset about her so she put on a fake smile. Ulquiorra walked up to Inoue and held her to him.

Inoue just melted into his arms. As the months went by and still no sign of Ichigo and the others, the only person she could really depend on now was Ulquiorra. It saddened her. She knew the Winter War was drawing near and that eventually Ulquiorra and her will have to choose sides. He would be with Aizen while she would be with Ichigo.

Why? She thought. She finally gained a new friend in the last five months and now in less then three weeks they would be enemies once again.

They just stood there hugging each other. Finally, Ulquiorra asked her if she was alright. Inoue just nodded but he knew better so he tried one more time. This time, Inoue finally told him what was on her mind.

"…like I said, I'm not going to change my mind…Ulquiorra, I wish it wasn't like this. Why couldn't I have met you in a different situation?"

"…I don't know… but until then, can we just stay like this?" Inoue saw the sadness that he tried to hide from everyone. She nodded and remained still in his arms.

Deep in her heart she wished for them to come for her but it killed her to know that Ulquiorra will no longer be friends with her. Then her heart skipped a beat when she thought about the hug that Ishida gave her.

Ulquiorra stared down at Inoue and saw the many expressions that were playing on her face. He wanted to know what she was thinking. However, he didn't ask her. He just ran his right hand through her hair and played with it. It didn't bother Inoue at all. In fact she enjoyed it. Soon she grew tire and went back to sleep. Ulquiorra carried her and put her in her bed and was about to leave when her hand grasped his.

"Please stay a little bit longer?"

Ulquiorra just nodded and took a chair and sat next to her, holding her hand.

**Karin's Room**

It wasn't long when Rukia caught hold of Ichigo once again. Ichigo snapped out of his dazed look and looked at Karin.

"How long?" he asked her.

"Right after you left." She replied.

"Karin, you do know the consequences –

"I know! … I know. I just wanted, Ichi-nii you aren't mad at me are you?" she asked.

"I … I'm half and half."

Hitsugaya stood up and closed the door to Karin's room and spoke. "If you are wondering, we all knew. Karin decided to make the decision on her own."

"Let's get this straight, I want to know everything." Ichigo looked at every single person in the room.

Karin and Hitsugaya explained about everything. They talked about when he just left her hanging, when they both met each other, to training with Urahara, and going to Soul Society.

Ichigo gaped at them.

"All of this happened in five months?"

They all just nodded. Soon the door opened and in came Isshin with a happy smile on his face. "Kids! Dinner is set lets all –

Before anyone could do anything Ichigo pinned his otou-san up a wall. Karin ran up to Ichigo and tried to pull him off but then stopped when she saw Isshin frown and become serious.

"How long were you planning to hide this?!" Ichigo screamed at his otou-san.

Isshin looked away. "Ichigo release him! You won't solve anything like this if you keep lashing out on everyone!" Rukia yelled.

Ichigo let go of Isshin and stood before him glaring at Isshin and clenching his fist. Karin looked at Isshin and he saw that she was angry with him also.

Yuzu walked in the room with a smile, which vanished when she saw everyone in her room, and Ichigo and Karin were pissed.

In a soft voice, she said that dinner was ready and quickly walked downstairs. Deciding that now wasn't the time to argue they all filed downstairs and ate dinner silently.

Yuzu couldn't help but feel the tension between everyone. She tried to strike up a conversation but everyone would end up being quiet again. So she gave up. Once dinner was done, she took care of everything while the rest of them went to Ichigo's room.

Yuzu didn't know what was wrong but whatever it was she knew that she wasn't really allowed to know so she took her time with the dishes and decided to wait until they all left Ichigo's room.

Back in Ichigo's room Isshin stood staring at his two kids. Karin couldn't stand the silence and wait, she wanted to know what the hell was going on right now. So she asked, "Otou-san, who are you really?"

Ichigo looked at Karin knowing that she too wanted to know desperately what is going on right now.

Isshin looked at Hitsugaya and Rukia, they didn't say anything while Ishida and Chad just looked away and waited for him to say something.

"I'm your otou-san –

"Otou-san! I'm not joking with you! Who are you really?! Are you … are you really a …shinigami?" Karin asked.

Isshin thought about what Urahara said to him he last time they talked. He knew that it would one day come to this.

_It looks like I can't hide it anymore._

"Karin-chan, Ichigo. There is a lot that you don't know about me. Yes, I am a shinigami. In fact, I was at captain level too. The reason I never told you, I didn't want you to follow my path and become a shinigami. However, now I know that I can't stop that. Yes, I knew all along what you both have been doing. Ichigo, I know that you finally have control of your hollow. Karin I know that you've never left Karakura Town to go with a club. I knew the whole time that you both were training for the Winter War just as I knew that you Ishida are a Quincy and you are having issues with Ryuken and Chad you have been with Urahara training. I also know that Rukia-chan and Shiro-chan are also shinigamis."

Everyone stared at him in shock and speechless. After about an hour of explaining everything, everyone now knew everything. There were no more secrets. There was also no more tension in the air. Ichigo and Karin are still slightly angry with Isshin but other than that, everything went well. Ishida was surprised to know that his father and Ichigo's father are rivals, where as Ichigo and him were friends.

For the rest of the week they all decided to act as if nothing happened so that Yuzu wouldn't worry about anything.

It was the last day for Karin to stay with her family.

"You're leaving again Karin-chan?" Yuzu asked..

"Hai, gomen Yuzu but don't worry next time I come back I'll have something for you. Well ready Toshiro, Ichi-nii?

Both of the boys nodded and said their final goodbyes to Yuzu and Isshin.

Rukia had already left a few days earlier since Soul Society was looking for her. Matsumoto was already at Urahara's house with Chad and Ishida.

The two Kurosakis and Hitsugaya said one last goodbye but Isshin glomped the three of them. He also managed to tell Hitsugaya to come back with a wedding ring before Karin whammed his face to the sidewalk. The three of them now walked to Urahara's Shop to meet up with everyone and prepare to meet with Rukia in Soul Society. They knew that they won't be seeing Karakura for a while.

Somewhere away from Karakura, a man with brown hair sitting on a throne stared at his minions and said, "It's almost time."

Then he laughed maniacally which echoed throughout Hueco Mundo, sending chills down Inoue's back as she stood there her hands chained while Ulquiorra tried to remain passive until the meeting was over and he was back in Inoue's room with her.

From this day on, everyone prepared to count down the days stressing on the Winter War as their time limit was thinning.


	11. Chapter 11

**Through It All**

**Soul Society**

_3 days. That's all the time we have left until we go to Hueco Mundo. Che …not yet. I'm not there yet. I need to get stronger. I don't have much time left._

"Wuah!!" Karin screamed as she stumbled on the grass. Breathing heavily as she stood to face Byakuya.

Byakuya's face remained calm as Karin sprinted towards him landing a blow to his shoulder. Byakuya winced for the pain that seared through his shoulder.

_She's getting faster._

Karin went to strike him once again but then a sharp pain went through her head. She dropped her Zanpakuto and clutched her head allowing Byakuya to strike at her. However, noticing the sudden pain going through Karin's head he sheaths his Zanpakuto back and landed before her. There Byakuya stood, staring at her, clutching her head, and grunting.

Byakuya put a hand to her shoulder but she swatted his hand and stared at him muttering curses at him. He listened to her. He couldn't make out what she was saying until she stood up and brought her hands to his chest and started screaming at him.

"You will die! Beneath the moon of a grand tower, you will meet the night of your demise! You will steal a life and pay the consequence! Sword in hand, pierce through your soul and darkness befalls on you until you fall to the depths of hell! Die –

Karin's eyes turned to a blood red with those words spilling from her lips. Byakuya smacked her neck with the back of his hand and Karin lost consciousness. Lifting her up into his arms bridal style, he carried her to the fourth division's headquarters and had her check up.

**Tenth Division**

"Are you positive that's what happened?" asked a very worried Ichigo. Byakuya nodded as Ichigo frowned.

"I couldn't decipher the rest of what she said. However, I was able to see that her eyes became red as she raised her voice. I'm not sure what she meant by her words." Byakuya stated.

Hitsugaya rose from his seat and asked him if he could repeat what she said. Byakuya nodded and said,

"You will die. Beneath the moon of a grand tower, you will meet the night of your demise. You will steal a life and pay the consequence. Sword in hand, pierce through your soul and darkness befalls on you until you fall to the depths of hell. Die…"

"I didn't let her finish because she would have attacked me. That's all I heard her say."

There was silence in the room and nobody said anything until Byakuya got up. "I don't know what is wrong with her; however, I advise you to keep a close eye on her. There's only three days left until Aizen makes his move." He rose and left the room.

"I don't understand, Karin wasn't like that before. Well she did have dreams but that was pretty much it." Ichigo said. After a while Ishida spoke.

"Ichigo, you said she had dreams. Right?"

"Yeah … but what does that have to do, wait are you suggesting that she might have dreamt something that would make her act like that?"

"Yes but not quite. Karin might have seen something but it may not have been just any dream. This might be something that is reoccurring. Kind of like a premonition. I could be wrong but if you think about the words she said, they weren't in past tense. Which means it hasn't happened yet," Ishida said, underlining keywords to the message that Karin had said.

"Eh?! You actually wrote it down?" Ichigo said.

"Wait, Ishida, let me see that." Hitsugaya jumped in. Ishida handed him the paper and he reread it repeatedly.

**Fourth Division Hospital**

"She only has minor injuries that can be healed within two days, but other than that, she's fine." Unohana said. Hitsugaya nodded. Unohana began to leave until Ichigo stopped her.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"While you were checking up on her, was she … talking or saying anything out of the ordinary?" Ichigo asked.

Unohana stared Ichigo for a few seconds and just shook her head. "No, she hasn't said anything. Is there a problem?"

For the next few minutes, Hitsugaya told her what they knew and she just nodded. "I'll keep her here for another day. I'll keep an eye on her if anything happens." Unohana began to leave the room.

"Maybe I'm worrying about her too much." Ichigo said.

"Are you going to go and train?" Hitsugaya asked. Ichigo nodded and told him to keep an eye on her. He stood up, brushed a piece of hair from Karin's face, and exited the room.

Hitsugaya remained by Karin's side and watched her sleep. For the next few hours, Hitsugaya didn't budge from his seat. He read the message over and over again, but nothing came up in his thoughts.

_What does she mean by beneath the moon of a grand tower, you will meet the night of your demise. You will steal a life and pay the consequence. Sword in hand, pierce through your soul and darkness befalls on you until you fall to the depths of hell? Is someone supposed to die? _

Hitsugaya was brought back to reality when Karin began to toss and turn. He looked at her and saw that she was sweating and went rigid. For a quick second she stopped moving and Hitsugaya became worried. Then, she began tossing again. Her eyes opening slightly and she sat up to face Hitsugaya.

"Where am I?" Karin asked with a raspy voice.

"You're in a hospital." Before he could continue, Karin shot up at him and her hands went directly to Hitsugaya's throat. Her eyes turned crimson as Hitsugaya began to be lifted up in the air.

"3 days til you fall. 3 days to make up your mind. 3 days to beg for forgiveness. 3 days til you meet death." Karin's left eye turned back to its natural gray color. Her head felt like it was going to burst. She tightened and loosened her grip on Hitsugaya's throat every now and then. Karin manages to remove her left hand from his neck and began clutching her head.

"Stop! Go away! Let go of him!" Yelled Karin to herself.

Karin let go of Hitsugaya but she then started to beat herself up. She jumped from the bed and bashed her head into the wall. "Argh! Go away!" she threw herself one last time into the wall and created a hole through the wall. Karin's right eye turned back to its normal gray color. She tilted backwards and started to fall. Hitsugaya jumped up to his feet and ran to catch Karin. Hitsugaya looked at Karin and noticed that her head was bleeding. He ripped a piece of his haori and dabbed it on her forehead.

Slowly Karin opened her eyes. Hitsugaya was staring at her and holding her. He had a sad expression written on his face.

_What the hell? Ow! My head hurts._

Karin began to sit up but Hitsugaya lifted her and carried her to her bed.

"Toshiro, what happened? Why does my head hurt so much?" she reached for her forehead and when she brought her hand down, she saw blood on her hand.

Her eyes widen and she looked at him questioningly.

"You don't remember anything do you?" he asked her. She shook her head but then something came at her.

"Wait, I remember being with Kuchiki-Taichou, but that's all I remember." Suddenly, Hitsugaya grab hold of Karin's shoulders and asked, "Are you sure you don't remember anything? Do you remember what you just did a few seconds ago?" he stared at her waiting for her to say something. Karin looked away from his eyes and then she saw that there were finger prints on his neck as if someone was strangling him.

Karin had a flash back when she saw his neck. She shoved Hitsugaya's hands away from her.

"I … I did that to you?" Hitsugaya saw Karin touch his neck and he winced. Karin saw that and removed her hands from him.

"Leave." She said. Hitsugaya protested but Karin yelled back.

"If you stay here any longer I might hurt you more!"

"NO! You know something Kurosaki and I want to know what it is."

"Go away Toshiro."

"Not until you tell me what's going on." Hitsugaya pulled up a chair beside her and sat down facing her waiting for her to tell him. Karin finally gave in and told him about her dreams.

**An Hour Later**

"Since then all I could ever dream about was that. I don't know why I keep dreaming it. I just see myself holding him. More like strangling him but that's just it. I usually don't remember what happens after that. I do know that, this has been occurring constantly. It's only now that I remember what just happened."

Hitsugaya and Karin remained silent until he showed her a piece of paper with the message she told Byakuya. Karin looked at the paper and read it.

"Does it sound familiar to you?" Hitsugaya asked.

"I'm sorry but it doesn't."

"I see. Well Kurosaki, get some sleep there's only two days left as of now. You're going to need some energy for this war." He got up when Karin grabbed his hand. Hitsugaya turned around and Karin put her head down. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Karin broke the silence.

"I'm sorry that I … did that to you." Karin didn't look up but Hitsugaya put his other hand on her head.

"It's not your fault."

**The Day of the Winter War**

The sky in Soul Society, the real world, and Hueco Mundo was turning an ominous gray with strong winds blowing around the air. Today was not an ordinary day. No. Today is the day where the fate of all three worlds is decided. Only one will fall. Nobody knew which side would win but no one was backing down now.

"Today is the day where we destroy Soul Society and the real world! Follow me and help me conquer all three worlds. They are finally here. You know what to do!" Yelled Aizen.

Aizen got up, walked out of the double doors of the main room, and headed to meet Ichigo. The rest of the people all headed different directions to go and meet with all the other shinigami and people that would try to stop Aizen.

Ulquiorra and Inoue walked in a corridor. Inoue was chained and Ulquiorra was pulling her with the chain. These past few days were difficult for the both of them. Neither of them said a word to each other since that day he stayed up to hold her hand.

Slowly they walked in silence until Inoue stopped walking. Ulquiorra looked up and saw that she was staring at a group of people. On the other side of the corridor. Standing before them were Chad, Karin, Hitsugaya, Rukia, Ishida, and Ichigo.

Ulquiorra stared at all of them full of hate however; the most hate that poured out of him was directed to Ichigo. It didn't take a while for him to notice that Inoue wasn't staring at Ichigo, but at Ishida. At first, Ulquiorra was confused at why she was more concerned with the Quincy rather than Ichigo, but then he realized she was never really crying about Ichigo. This whole time he thought that it was Ichigo she was desperately waiting for to rescue her. He was wrong. It might have been Ichigo she waited for at first, but somehow she suddenly cared more about the Quincy.

Ulquiorra turned his gaze to Ishida and glared at him. "Inoue!" Ichigo yelled. Inoue saw that all her friends were there. She felt relieved to see them again. She took one glance at Ishida and saw how serious and angry his face was. She didn't think that she would ever see him again. She didn't understand why he suddenly disappeared but she didn't care about that. She was just glad that he was there to save her.

Inoue took a step towards them but Ulquiorra pulled the chain and it forced her backward and into him.

"Inoue-san!" Ishida said as he took a step forward. "I won't let you through here unless you defeat me." Ulquiorra said.

Each of the shinigami were about to go ahead and attack Ulquiorra but Ishida beat them to him. Ishida reappeared in front of Ulquiorra and released his arrow. Ulquiorra dodges it and it almost hits Inoue.

"Ishida!" yelled Ichigo. After a few more minutes, Ishida was engaged in a heated battle with Ulquiorra. Ishida manages to distract Ulquiorra and signaled for the rest of them to keep going in Aizen's palace. Ichigo was about to protest but Rukia stopped him.

"C'mon Ichigo! Ishida can handle this on his own let's go!" Rukia yelled grabbing onto Ichigo and pulling him with her.

As soon as all of them were out of sight, the fight with Ulquiorra and Ishida continued.

"You don't need to worry about them. I'm your opponent." Ishida said as he prepared to shoot another arrow at him.

**Real World**

As the sky became darker, the sky began to rip and a dozen of hollows and menos grande were coming from the sky. As soon as one of them landed, they were purified.

"There are so many of them!" Yoruichi exclaimed. Urahara attacked another that landed. "Well this will be entertaining." He said.

"Hey don't leave me out!" Isshin yelled running up to them. Somewhere near them Renji came running to help them but Urahara told him to go to Hueco Mundo and follow Karin and the others. Renji nodded and left to go to Hueco Mundo.

Ururu, Jinta, and Tessai came out of nowhere and began attacking the hollows. Ururu went on annihilation mode and destroyed many hollows. Isshin commented on how powerful she is to Jinta. This made Jinta upset and went all out on the hollows.

"That's the spirit!" Urahara and Isshin said. They almost got hit when a menos flew by their head as Yoruichi scolded them for just sitting there being lazy.

**Soul Society **

Everywhere in Soul Society, many shinigamis were evacuating people to a safe place while hollows and Menos Grande somehow were able to go there.

From the 12th Division Headquarters many of the shinigamis there were running around trying to put barriers up and figure out how the hollows and menoses were able to get it Soul Society.

"Argh! I don't understand! How the hell were they able to get in here?!" One of the technician growled in frustration.

Mayuri became cynical once again and rather fearing for his life, he was laughing evilly. Of course, he probably wanted to experiment them now that hey were able to get in, something that was forbidden but happened anyways.

In the 4th Division Hospital, many people were being brought inside to be healed.

"Hanataro! Quickly! Help that man over there!" Unohana yelled across the room. "Hai!" Hanataro ran to the man that just recently came in with a broken rib and arm. All the 4th division shinigami had their hands full as more and more patients came in. Unohana looked around the room and frowned.

_There won't be enough room left if this keeps up._

She got up and ran to the next victim trying to heal them as efficiently and quickly as she can. She began to grow tired when Hanataro placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't stop yet Taichou, you can do it. You are Taichou after all." Hanataro smiled and went to another injured person.

Somewhere not too far from there, there was an explosion. Unohana and Hanataro looked up and saw through the window that a building collapsed and people screaming and jumping out the window to save themselves.

**Hueco Mundo**

"Everyone I think we should turn this way!" Karin yelled to her comrades. They all turned the direction that Karin pointed to only to be stopped by two Arrancars, Noitora and Aaroniero.

Noitora was tall and had long hair. His face had a wide grin showing his upper teeth. Aaroniero was slightly normal looking but has a capsule for a head with two floating heads swimming inside it.

Karin and Ichigo were about to attack them but Noitora and Aaroniero dodged them and attacked Chad and Rukia. Soon the four of them were engaged in battle.

"Ichigo, Karin, Hitsugaya-Taichou! Go on! Chad and I can handle this!" Rukia swiftly pulled her Zanpakuto and charged towards Aaroniero. Chad gave them a reassuring look and continued to fight Noitora.

"Don't worry little shinigami, we'll make sure that they won't stay alive." Noitora laughed using his Zanpakuto on Chad.

"GO!" Chad yelled.

Ichigo, Karin, and Hitsugaya looked at their two companions and left. Hitsugaya now running in front of the two Kurosakis blast through a door and saw a tall figure walking up to them. His hair was light blue and he had the most sadistic smile anyone could ever see. He slowly approached them and then in a blink of an eye he was in front of Ichigo, strangling him.

"Glad to see you back." He smiled.

Ichigo was released and he gasped for air. "Che… Grimmjow." Grimmjow smirked. "Oh you remember me? I'm flattered. But prepare to die." In a flash Grimmjow attacked Ichigo once again and Ichigo flew backwards through a wall.

"Ichi-nii!" Karin yelled as she tried to attack Grimmjow but he whammed her against a wall. Grimmjow smirked and reappeared in front of Karin and prepared to hit her when Ichigo appeared in front of Grimmjow. "Lay one finger on her and I'll kill you."

Grimmjow smirked. "Oh? You kill me? Don't make me laugh."

Ichigo glared at him, "Toshiro, take Karin and get as far away from us as you can. Go now!" Hitsugaya nodded and picked up Karin, hoisted her over his shoulder, and ran.

It didn't take that long for Karin to wake up. She opened her eyes found herself on someone's shoulder.

_Toshiro?_

"Put me down. I can walk." She said. Hitsugaya stopped and put her down and his eyes changed when he saw blood running down her shoulder. He traced his fingers along the blood leading up to her shoulder. She winced when he softly touched where the wound was. His eyes went from scared to anger.

_I almost couldn't protect her. I won't let that happen again._

He looked up and noticed that she was talking to him. "I said we should get going. We didn't come here for nothing. We have to stop Aizen." Karin walked again while Hitsugaya followed her.

They walked on for about ten minutes until they found Aizen and Gin. Hitsugaya stopped causing Karin to bump into him. "Toshiro what's wrong?" she looked up and saw the person they were looking for.

Hitsugaya tried not to attack him recklessly, "Aizen." He spat.

Karin's eyes widen. "A…Aizen."

_This guy here is Aizen?_

She looked at Hitsugaya and Aizen she noticed that Aizen smirked.

"Very nice to see you again Hitsugaya Toshiro." His deep voice echoing through the room.


	12. Chapter 12

**Through It All**

**Hey, guys just letting you know we are almost there! Keep reading!**

"Where do you think you're going," a man said. Renji stopped running as he stood face to face a man who looks similar to Aizen. He had pink hair and glasses with a facial expression that would almost make him look like Aizen.

"Che … I don't have time to deal with you!" Renji spat.

"Aren't we hasty? Very well, let's make this quick. My name is Szayel Aporro Grantz –

Renji punched him in the face. "Like I said, I don't have time to deal with you!" Szayel smirked and fought Renji. Szayel was having the upper advantage, as Renji grew tired. He was able to suppress his spiritual power. Soon Szayel began to manipulate Renji telling him that Rukia was dead and that he couldn't defeat him.

Renji gets pissed off and continues to attack him.

"Bankai!" Renji released his bankai and his Zabimaru was released. Through out the fight Renji tried to find a way to defeat him. It felt impossible since Szayel's Zanpakuto has yet to be released. Moments later Renji is on the floor panting as Szayel walks towards him.

"You can't defeat me." He moved closer to Renji and pulled his hair. There faces a few inches apart as he whispered in Renji's ear.

"Your dear friend died. You will never be able to see her again. That's right, you're not strong enough. You're too weak. You'll never be strong enough to protect anyone, not even your –

"URUSAI!!!" Renji shoved his Zanpakuto through Szayel's body. Szayel released a piercing scream and coughed up blood. Renji pulled his Zanpakuto and with every word he said, he stabbed and sliced Szayel.

Suddenly finding the courage and energy, Renji did everything he could to keep Szayel from attacking him. Soon Szayel tried to attack Renji but he could barely breathe. He was loosing so much blood. Now, Renji did one final move, using Zabimaru, he sealed  
Szayel to a corner and both him and Zabimaru attacked him. It was too late, Szayel was exhausted and the loss of blood was too much for him. He reached for his Zanpakuto and tried to release it's true form however, he couldn't continue. He slowly sank to the floor as Renji walked towards him.

Renji took his Zanpakuto and sliced Szayel's arm off. "I told you, I don't have time to deal with you… and by the way …my name is Abarai Renji." Renji took one last breath and left to go find Rukia as Szayel lay on the floor unable to move.

**Real World **

"There's too many of them!" Jinta yelled. He was about to get hit when a strawberry blond woman grabbed him and hoisted him over her shoulder.

"Haineko!" up in the air Matsumoto placed Jinta down next to Ururu while her Zanpakuto vanished and dissolved into ash.

"Don't forget about us." Matsumoto said as Ikkaku and Yumichika appeared just in time.

"Hey those are all my victims!" Urahara exclaimed playfully. Yoruichi rolled her eyes.

_He's really into this. In that case…_

Yoruichi jumped in front of Urahara, purified his hollow, and said, "That makes 12 for me."

Urahara pouted at Yoruichi and whined.

The fighting of the hollows went from just fighting; to a game of how many hollows and menos grande can you kill. Everyone became into the game refusing to kill or purify the least, they all quickly resumed their fighting stances and just went all out on them.

Isshin became so into it that he himself looked like he was a Menos Grande on a rampage. They all sweat dropped when he stood on top a menos and yelled, "I'm number one!!" and then got squashed to a building by a hollow.

**Hueco Mundo**

Inoue watched as tears filled her eyes and went down her porcelain cheeks. She wanted it to end. She couldn't take seeing both Ishida and Ulquiorra hurt each other for her. She could tell that both of them had tired each other out. Ulquiorra's deep breathing increased as if he was on a verge of having a heart attack.

Ishida stood up from the ground and tried to produce another arrow. His timing was becoming slower. He could barely stand. Before he could shoot, Ulquiorra was standing right in front of him. He could no longer use his eye to fight because Ishida had damaged it enough.

He punched Ishida in the gut and Ishida gasped for air. Inoue ran to Ishida and held him up. Ulquiorra frowned and stood before them. He pushed Inoue, grabbed Ishida from her arms, and punched him continuously.

Inoue couldn't do anything. Sure, she had Tsubaki but she was so sad and afraid that she couldn't even summon him to fight.

Ishida looked at Inoue and saw her tears falling and not stopping. It looked like an endless river of tears. It refused to stop. Ulquiorra kept going at Ishida as Ishida began to slip in a blank state.

_He told her about his father and grandfather. He glanced up to see if Inoue was listening and found himself staring at Inoue who was now near tears._

"_What's wrong Inoue-san?" Suddenly she threw her arms around him._

"_Oh Ishida-kun, that's so sad. I'm so sorry."_

"_Uh…its alright, that happened a long time ago."_

"_But still! I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?" she asked_

"_Um …nothing really… I'm just glad that you listened to me and went for a walk with me."_

"_Are you sure?" she asked again._

"_I'm sure."_

_"Ne, Ishida-kun, you should smile more you look good like that. I had a great time with you and maybe we can just go for a walk again ne?"_

_"H... hai... we should." She smiled at Ishida making him blush._

'_Another walk…No… we will go for another walk. I promise you that Inoue-san.'_

Out of nowhere Inoue screamed, "ISHIDA-KUN!"

Ulquiorra kept decking Ishida as his eyes flew open. Everything was blurry at first but his eyesight became steady and clear. Ulquiorra felt a sudden change in his reiatsu. Ishida gathered a lot of reiatsu and produced his Seele Schneider.

(Seele Schneider is his new arrow that can be used as a melee combat sword just letting you know.)

Ishida swung his Seele Schneider at Ulquiorra but he dodged his and backed away. Ishida kept swinging it around until he managed to get one hit on Ulquiorra. Together they stood across the room. They ran towards each other to do one final strike. A flash of white lit the room as the sound of a sword going through a body resounded around the room. As the light disappeared, Inoue gasped.

A thud was heard as one body fell to the floor.

"ISHIDA-KUN!" Inoue ran to Ishida's side as he lay on the floor in a puddle of blood. Ulquiorra stood shaking and not long after he too fell to the floor. Blood seeped through his chest onto the cold surface.

"I…Inoue…," Ulquiorra began. Inoue stared at Ishida and lifted him up to sit. Inoue walked up to Ulquiorra and held him in her arms. She shed a few tears as Ulquiorra brought his finger to her face and brushed a tiny crystal from her eye. Ishida began to rise and walked towards them wincing every now and then.

"Ulquiorra ……," she sobbed. "There is something I've been meaning to tell you."

"What is it?" she asked

"I hate you," she shed another tear. "I hate you because, ……. I …l… love you." Inoue began to shake as he continued. "For months and months I always thought about how unbelievable you were. You were so loud, you cried so much, you never shut up, and you tried to befriend me. I always wondered what was wrong with you. But then I realized, there was nothing wrong with you. There was something wrong with me. I have no emotions, and I always thought that I could go on like that, but you made me realize that there was more to it than just keeping you hostage and serving Aizen. I don't know how you did it, but I knew I was falling for you. I … I thought that you should know how I felt before the war, but that would ruin everything and as you know my allegiance to Aizen will never fade."

Inoue sobbed harder as Ulquiorra's life began to slip from her.

"I just wanted to tell you that I love you and I will always love you. I enjoyed every minute of being with you. Inoue, don't cry," Ulquiorra stared at Ishida and said, "You defeated me, and for that I will release Inoue." He reached for Inoue's wrists and unlocked the chains.

"Go now, Aizen-sama isn't too far from here, just keep going straight. Quincy, protect Inoue with your life …. She is worth more than you think." Ulquiorra took a final glance at Inoue, savoring his final view of Inoue as his eyes slowly closed.

"Ulquiorra …. Ulquiorra! No! Wake up! Wake up! Ulquiorra!" Inoue shook Ulquiorra fiercely hoping for him to wake up, but he never did. She cried as she hugged his body. Ishida kneeled beside Inoue and wrapped his arms around Inoue. She slowly let go of Ulquiorra and embraced Ishida as he began to lift both Inoue and himself from the floor and walked away from Ulquiorra towards Aizen.

**Rukia and Chad**

Two bodies fell from the air onto the floor. Chad gets up to strike Noitora once again. Noitora just smirks and slashes through Chad. Chad loses a lot of blood. Even so, he continues to fight.

Rukia and Aaroniero are fighting each other furiously. However, Aaroniero cornered Rukia. Aaroniero released his Zanpakuto.

"Glotoneria!" he shouted. After sometime of fighting, Rukia released her Zanpakuto. Once her Zanpakuto was released, she looked up and saw Kaien. She released a gasp but then remembered that Kaien was dead.

_No he's dead. No! Don't be fooled. He's only trying to make you weak._

Rukia tried not to look at Kaien. Her attacks became doubtful and less powerful. Aaroniero smirked and said, "I got you now." He attacked her as Kaien and she let her guard down.

"Rukia!" Chad yelled but he got hit in the face by Noitora. "I'm your opponent here! Don't you dare take your eyes off me!" Noitora began slashing Chad repeatedly until he could no longer stand. Chad fell backwards and went on defensive mode.

After a few more hits and blood gushing out, Rukia finally felt all the doubt go away from her. She stood up confidently and prepared to use the various dances of her Zanpakuto.

"Ikke! Sode no Shirayuki!" Rukia sceamed.

(Ikke means go. Sode no shirayuki is her bankai.)

Rukia used her Zanpakuto into three dances before defeating Aaroniero.

"First Dance! Tsukishiro!" Aaroniero was wrapped around a circle and suddenly everything within it froze including him.

"Next Dance! Hakuren!" Then an endless wave of ice shards were produced by her Zanpakuto and shot directly at Aaroniero.

"Third Dance! Shirafune!" Lastly, her final attack with her Zanpakuto, her Zanpakuto began to reforge itself from all the damage it took with fighting with Aaroniero. The ice particles pierced through Aaroniero as if there was no tomorrow.

With that as the final blow, Aaroniero was defeated lying on a puddle of his blood staring directly at Rukia.

Chad found the right time and finally hit Noitora with everything he had. Soon Chad's fist went through Noitora's body.

"No! Nobody can break through my body!" Noitora shouted curses as Chad did another punch through his now broken body.

Noitora began to lose a lot of blood as Chad did one final blow that went through Noitora's body again. Noitora released a piercing scream before crumbling to the floor. Chad stared at Noitora waiting for him to attack him but nothing happened. Noitora laid on the floor lifeless as his blood poured out the three holes that were created by Chad.

Chad lost his balance and was heading to the floor when Rukia took hold of him and made him stand.

"Can you still walk?" she asked.

"Hai." He said. Slowly and carefully Chad draped his arm over Rukia and they both went straight to catch up with the others.

**Rukia's bankai has three moves those of you who doesn't know that.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Through It All**

"Aizen." Hitsugaya said his voice filled with hate. How he loathed him so much for taking away his only happiness.

"You're going to pay for what you did to Hinamori." Hitsugaya was about to attack him when Karin grabbed his hand.

"It's not wise to fight him recklessly Toshiro." She said shaking from anger.

"Oh Shiro-chan you really should listen to Kurosaki. And to think that you are a Taichou. Tsk tsk." Aizen said with a smile. Gin walked up next to Aizen and grinned more than usual.

"Kurosaki Karin is it? I guess being a shinigami runs through the family. How unfortunate." Aizen said.

"How so?" Karin asked still holding onto Hitsugaya.

"Your family is a not worth being a shinigami. You have no talent just like your brother and your stupid father."

Karin gritted her teeth as she was close to losing control over herself. Hitsugaya could sense how angry he was making her. It was one thing to call her bloodline a disgrace but it was also another to speak ill about her own family before her.

Soon her reiatsu began to increase. Aizen and Gin smirked as she began to power up.

"Can I?" Gin asked.

"Certainly." Aizen answered.

In a second Gin disappeared and attacked Karin. Hitsugaya barely made it in time to stop Gin from attacking Karin. Both of them stood in front of Karin, their Zanpakuto pushing against each other. Gin grinned as Hitsugaya frowned.

"Eh? Protecting the weak girl now? Have you found a replacement for Hinamori?" Gin asked.

"Hn…." Was all he replied to Gin.

Karin let Hitsugaya deal with Gin while she walked up to Aizen standing only two feet away from him. She stared at him and he smirked.

**Ichigo**

Ichigo panted trying to dodge all of Grimmjow's attacks. He's finding it more difficult to attack him now that Grimmjow has released his Zanpakuto.

Ichigo's mask is starting to crumble with each hit he endures from Grimmjow.

_Damn I just need to stab him. And then it'll all be over. Damn it! I'm already in my Hollow form. You can do this._

Grimmjow runs towards Ichigo attacking him everywhere. Pieces and pieces of Ichigo's mask crack and shattered.

"You've been training." Grimmjow states rather than question. Ichigo just smirks and runs towards Grimmjow to deliver a blow.

"Stop fighting for your friends. Fight to kill me! Only then you will be strong!" Grimmjow lands a blow to Ichigo's gut as Ichigo pierces his Zanpakuto through Grimmjow's arm. Grimmjow takes hold of Ichigo's Zanpakuto a pulls it out of his arm and smirks again.

"This is it for you!" Grimmjow brought his hands together while Ichigo goes to run forward.

"Garron!" Grimmjow shouted as ten massive, energy beams shoot out from his fingertips heading towards Ichigo. Ichigo has no other way of attacking him, so he decided to just run straight through and hope for the best. As soon as he got closer to Grimmjow, he thrust his Zanpakuto and stabbed right through Grimmjow's body.

Grimmjow released a scream as Ichigo pulled back his Zanpakuto and landed softly on the floor. Grimmjow landed on the ground with a loud bang. Ichigo walked towards Grimmjow.

"I don't need to kill you to fight and become strong. The people I protect always make me stronger." Ichigo turned and walked few steps towards the exit of the room when he heard, "Che …. You may have defeated me but don't forget, I didn't become stronger because of protecting my friends. I have no friends and I don't need any. They will only bring you down."

Ichigo 'hned' and continued to walk which turned into a sprint. He didn't look back. He just kept going forward. Forward is where his friends are and he knew it.

**Hitsugaya and Karin**

**(Grand Tower)**

"How long do you plan to do this?" Karin asked.

"Until everyone has suffered."

Not too far from them Gin and Hitsugaya are wrapped up in a fierce battle. It has soon come to use bankai. Surprisingly, Gin is having a harder time than the last time he fought with Hitsugaya.

"Hn…. Seems like you became stronger." He said.

"Still not talking huh well don't worry, I don't have to make you talk. Soon you'll be screaming for me to stop." Gin and Hitsugaya kept their pace going. Neither of them dared to take their eyes off each other even for a second.

"I don't know why you are doing this but this has to stop!" Karin yelled. Aizen walked up to Karin and walked around her. Taking a full view of her appearance. That glare of hers looks almost like Ichigo's.

Karin's eyes followed him as he circled around. She put her hands on her Zanpakuto just incase he decides to attack her. Aizen finally stops circling her and suddenly appears a centimeter away from her face as he whispers into her ear.

"No matter what you do, you will never be able to protect anyone again. You wasted your time coming here. You're nothing but a burden to everyone. You failed to protect your sister, you're brother isn't here right now and you are weak. How will you protect your precious Toshiro? That's right you can't protect him. He'll be lying on the floor dead before you could do anything to –

"No!" Karin pulled out her Zanpakuto thrust it forward through Aizen. Aizen disappears and reappears behind her.

Right when Hitsugaya was going to strike at Gin, he heard a clang of swords just a few feet away from him.

"Kurosaki! Gah!" Gin pinned him to a wall.

"You're fighting me." Hitsugaya brought his Zanpakuto up and pushed Gin off him. Deciding that he could no longer go on like this, Hitsugaya placed his Zanpakuto in front of him.

"Set upon the frozen heavens, Hyorinmaru!" Before them, the temperature of the tower room dropped down as an ice dragon wraps around Hitsugaya's arm and attaches its wings on his back. Three purple ice flowers float above Hitsugaya timing him on how long he will be able to use Hyorinmaru.

As soon as Hyorinmaru is released, Renji, Ishida and Inoue, Rukia and Chad, Ichigo, and Tosen arrive to the tower. Tosen quickly runs towards Aizen and draws his Zanpakuto.

Karin removes her eyes from Aizen as she spots her friends just arriving in the tower. Aizen takes this chance, pins Karin on the floor, and stabs her with his Zanpakuto. Karin screamed and Ichigo went to go attack Aizen but Tosen jumped in front of him. Every time Ichigo tried to go to Aizen, Tosen would interfere and try to stop him. Now Ichigo had no choice but to fight Tosen in order to get to Karin and Aizen.

Ishida began bleeding profusely once again from the wound that Ulquiorra gave him. Inoue put him down the floor and placed her hands on his chest. She began to heal him as he stared at her. Inoue looked up, stared at Ishida, and blushed. Rukia turned her head to face the two and smile but then she frowned as she watched Ichigo fight Tosen. She tried to go and help him but found that she couldn't move anymore. She was so exhausted from the last fight.

Renji looked around him and saw that everyone was there. He looked around and found the person he was looking for. He sighed in relief to know that Rukia wasn't dead. Chad couldn't bare it anymore and began to fall to the floor. He too was so exhausted. Any minute now and he would lose consciousness.

As the three fights continued nobody could do anything but watch. They were all too tired to continue. Inoue tried her best to heal everyone but she too was beginning to become exhausted. Healing all of them in one go would be difficult. They were all badly injured and it would take some time.

As time went by, Hitsugaya's petals were shattering quickly. He was now down to four petals left. He couldn't afford to lose all four of them. There was no water near them. Once all four has shattered and vanished, it would be over for him. Hyorinmaru won't be able to regenerate.

Gin wasn't doing too well either. He too was using his bankai, Shinso.

"Give it up Hitsugaya, you only have four petals left. You won't last long." Gin said.

"Che … I could say the same to you." Hitsugaya dives from the air towards Gin as he extends his Zanpakuto to use it's force of the extension of the blade to pierce through Hitsugaya. Gin misses when Hitsugaya thrusts his blade forward going through Gin and splattering Gin's blood all over him.

Gin gasps but then he takes hold of Hitsugaya's Zanpakuto and pulls it into him deepening the wound. Hitsugaya didn't understand why he did this. He quickly pulls his Zanpakuto out of Gin's body. Gin stumbles for a bit then falls to his knees.

_Why did he just do that?_

Hitsugaya thought.

Gin smiled dangerously at Hitsugaya. "There's no point in fighting back. You'll only die here. You will never be able to protect her." Within a few seconds, Gin's eyes began to close. His head dropped to the floor.

Hitsugaya quickly went to go help Karin when she yelled, "Don't come any closer!" Hitsugaya stared at her as if she was crazy but then he realized that she wanted to fight Aizen without his help.

"Toshiro, go and protect the others." Hitsugaya protested only to be yelled at once again. He frowned and walked toward where Rukia and everyone else were. The more he watched the more he saw that Karin was truly strong.

She has yet to use bankai and she was able to hold off Aizen. It was then he wondered,

_Can she even use bankai?_

He didn't think about it like he was insulting her. It was more like he was scared that she wouldn't be able to hold him off anymore and if she couldn't use bankai then she was screwed no matter how strong she was in that state.

Ichigo and Tosen were both at their peak. Tosen had many gashes and was beginning to swell up. Ichigo had bruises that were beginning to form. He was also losing a lot of blood. He was barely able to see anymore. He had to get him in one more hit. Just one more hit and it could be over for him or for Tosen. If he doesn't think fast he'll be done for.

Tosen sprinted to attack Ichigo, Ichigo couldn't think of anything else left to do but use his Getsuga Tensho. Now that Ichigo is able to control his hollow, the speed and power of his Getsuga Tensho increased. Tosen wasn't fast enough to dodge it and got hit. Tosen now laid on the floor panting harshly. He tried to get up but he couldn't both his legs are now cracked and broken. Ichigo stared at Tosen.

He felt like he was going to collapse. He felt himself rock backward and headed to the floor. He found himself in Rukia's arms instead of hitting the floor. Ichigo tried to get up but Rukia pulled him back down. She shook her head no.

"Let Karin-chan fight this battle on her own." She said. Ichigo just stared at her and turned his gaze towards Karin.

Karin was taking a few blows from Aizen. Suddenly the sky began to get darker. They have been fighting for a while now. It took a very long time to get to this point.

_Should I use bankai? No way! I've only used it once and I could barely even control it. Damn I wish I could have had more time to train. He's probably not even trying right now. I have to do something to end this._

Hitsugaya noticed that the moon was showing. It was then he remembered what happened in the hospital. His eyes widen he finally realized that the message was about to happen soon. He looked at Ishida and noticed that Ishida was also looking at the moon. He had to do something, he wasn't sure what would happen, but he had a weird feeling that something will happen to Karin. He just didn't know what.

Hitsugaya couldn't take it anymore and ran straight to Aizen.

Aizen felt that he was no longer having fun.

_Time to get serious._

Aizen grabbed Karin's hair and bashed her against the wall. He smiled and swung his Zanpakuto at her repeatedly. Slowly her clothes began to rip everywhere exposing her pale skin. Karin felt his reiatsu increase and started to shake. Aizen smacked her in the face and she hurdled towards the ground but Hitsugaya suddenly appeared and caught her. Hitsugaya looked at her and saw that she was beat up badly.

Hitsugaya began to shake in anger. The room started to get even more cooler than it was earlier. "T…Toshiro…," Karin coughed up blood as she finally looked towards the window. The moon shined brightly then all of a sudden, her heart began to beat rapidly.

Karin gripped Hitsugaya's arm and dropped her Zanpakuto as she clutched her head with the other hand. Hitsugaya wondered what was wrong until he saw it. He saw her eyes. They were no longer warm and gray. Her eyes were crimson, like a fire burning ferociously.

Karin threw Hitsugaya into Ichigo and the others. They all stumbled and were confused. Hitsugaya turned to all of them. "I figured it out! Ichigo, Ishida, the message earlier was about Aizen! She said that he would die in a tower beneath the moon. We are all in a tower right now and the moon is out! Sword in hand as it pierces his soul. Aizen will die by the sword. It all makes sense now!"

Ichigo and Ishida stared at him with their eyes widen. "But what about Karin? She's not herself. What will happen to her?!" Ichigo asked desperately.

Hitsugaya didn't know. He wasn't sure what will happen to her. "Maybe she's the one that will pierce his soul." Ishida said.

_That's right. It has to be her. _

Ichigo immediately stood up and tried to go towards Karin to help her. Ishida followed Ichigo. Quickly he produced his Seele Schneider preparing to attack Aizen. As the three of them drew closer and closer to both Aizen and Karin, Karin launched herself on Aizen. Ichigo and Ishida stopped running towards him as Karin suddenly appeared in front of them. She released and unknown amount of reiatsu and reached for Aizen's neck. She began to strangle him shouting,

"Do you still want to go on?! Huh?! You will die! Beneath the moon of a grand tower, you will meet the night of your demise! You will steal a life and pay the consequence! Sword in hand, pierce through your soul and darkness befalls on you until you fall to the depths of hell! Die!" Karin tightened her grip on Aizen as she moved her right hand to the side and suddenly her Zanpakuto flew to her hand.

Hitsugaya stopped and watched what she was about to do. Before striking at Aizen, Karin spoke again as the room began to dim. Slowly the room grew darker.

"Darkness befalls you until you fall into the depths of hell …" Hitsugaya said aloud as the room slowly began to grow darker.

Suddenly a wind began to pick up in the room. The wind was coming from Karin. "Bankai!" Karin yelled.

Karin released her grip on Aizen as her Zanpakuto turned white and red. The hilt was red, as the blade became a shiny white color. Karin appeared in front of Aizen she placed her left hand on his forehead and soon blood trickled down his forehead. It wasn't long until he actually felt a sharp searing pain through his head. Aizen screamed at the pain that he felt. Karin removed her hand from his forehead to reveal a large cut in a shape of a dragon. Blood poured down his face. To Aizen the pain felt like Karin used her Zanpakuto to carve the dragon on his forehead but obviously, she couldn't have done that because all she did was place her hand on his forehead.

Karin lifted her Zanpakuto ready to bring it down and slice Aizen's head off when he disappeared. Karin looked around and found that Aizen was holding Hitsugaya. Aizen's Zanpakuto placed right on Hitsugaya's throat.

"If you make one move I will slit his throat."

Karin closed her eyes, the room became warmer and soon became burning hot like an inferno. She murmured an attack and a dragon of fire appeared and wrapped itself around Aizen pieces of his clothes were burnt. It's grip around Aizen tightened as he fought to escape the fire dragon. Karin grabbed Hitsugaya and held him close to her.

Hitsugaya couldn't believe that she was using her Bankai. He noticed her Bankai was similar to his. They were both dragons. He looked at her and noticed her eyes were still red.

_Maybe when she prepares to use Bankai her eyes turn red._

Suddenly another figure appears. "Nobody hurts Aizen-sama!" the person walks forward and reveals who she is. Aizen manages to escape the dragon as the girl steps up.

Hitsugaya's eyes widens as he whispers, "Hinamori."


	14. Chapter 14

**Through It All**

"_It's so good to see you again!" exclaimed a happy girl._

"_Hey Hinamori." Hitsugaya said standing in a room before a gigantic projector screen._

"_How are you doing now?" Hinamori asked through the screen._

"_I'm fine. How about you?" Hitsugaya became a little more serious._

"_I'm great! I've never felt this good in such a long time. …Look, I just want to say sorry about the last time we talked to each other. I know that it's not easy to forgive Aizen-sama, but I was wrong to yell at you."_

"_It's okay."_

"_Ne, how long do you think it will take until Aizen-sama is free?" she asked with a curious expression._

"_Free? What do you mean?"_

"_Well, I believe that he's been captured. Aizen-sama wouldn't hurt anyone. He's such a great person. I don't understand why nobody believes me when I say that he doesn't do –_

"_Hinamori, Aizen did do all of those things –_

"_No he didn't! Shiro-chan! Don't tell me that you too believe that it was his fault! He didn't do anything wrong! It's all Gin's fault! He took Aizen-sama away from us and he manipulated him! Why don't you understand –_

"_No Hinamori, it's you that doesn't understand –_

"_I can't believe you! You of all people! I believed that you would understand me! Who are you going to listen to, me or these other people?!"_

"_Hinamori –_

"_No! You don't get it! I thought we were best friends, but I guess I was wrong. You don't care, you just want to capture Aizen-sama and kill him so that you will be praised and people won't call you a little kid anymore. I can't believe you would do something like that! –_

"_Hinamori! You shouldn't be talking like that! You know I wouldn't do that –_

"_But you are going to –_

"_No! Hinamori you and I have been together for years and you'd rather believe him! You didn't even see what he's been doing –_

"_What and you have?!"_

"_Hinamori –_

"_I guess this is it. Obviously, it looks like I can't trust you. It's been decided. You don't care about this and all you want is to kill Aizen-sama. If you're his enemy, then you are my enemy. From this day on, you and I are no longer friends. I don't even know you and I don't want to know you! I've had enough of you."_

"_Don't be ridiculous!"_

"_It's over Hitsugaya! TAICHOU."_

_Hinamori glares at Hitsugaya then walks away from the screen not looking back at him again._

"What are you doing here?" Hitsugaya asked. Walking away from Karin's grasps. Hinamori glared at Hitsugaya and walked to Aizen holding his arm.

"Aizen-sama are you alright?" she asked worriedly. Aizen smiles at her and then smirks sadistically at both Hitsugaya and Karin.

"I won't forgive you for attacking Aizen-sama," Hinamori looks at Aizen and he nods. "I don't know who you are but you have no right in hurting Aizen-sama. Prepare to die!"

Hinamori pulls out her Zanpakuto and strikes at Karin. Karin vanished from everyone's eyes. Nobody knew where she was. Suddenly there was a clang of swords echoing throughout the room. Everyone turned their heads and saw Karin fighting Aizen.

Karin _honestly_ didn't care who this girl was, but she couldn't afford to waste time and energy on her. She knew she had to defeat Aizen even if it meant dying. She carefully looked around and saw that nobody was in condition at all to fight and defeat Aizen. Only she had enough energy left to fight him. Plus, earlier she saw the way Hitsugaya looked at Hinamori. It was obvious that Hitsugaya wanted to deal with her rather than Aizen even though he wanted to be the one to take his life.

"Aizen-sama! Argh!" Hitsugaya swung his Zanpakuto at Hinamori stopping her from taking a step further towards Aizen and Karin. Hitsugaya wanted nothing more than to talk to her but it was clear that she didn't care that he was there and that he was trying to stop her. Hinamori released her Zanpakuto's true form and attacked Hitsugaya.

From afar, Ichigo and the others were staring at the other four shinigamis fighting each other. They were half-confused and half not.

"We … have to help them." Inoue said panting from all the power that she drained from herself healing the others' injuries.

"No…. we can't. If we do, we'll only be in the way. Besides, this is their fight. We don't have a right to interfere." Ishida said.

With each minute, Karin tried to find Aizen's weakness. She was growing more tired with each move she made. It didn't seem like it was affecting him at all. If it did, he hid it very well. On the other hand, Aizen was exhausted, but he couldn't show it because if he did she would easily finish him off. He noticed that she was frustrated and on the verge of losing concentration. If he can keep it up a little more she would crack and then he could make his move. However, he was also on the verge of cracking like her. He was very annoyed at how difficult she was making it for him.

Karin went on defensive and tried to figure out where to strike at Aizen. She finally saw and opening and went for it. Her Zanpakuto cut off his haori but missed his skin by less than a centimeter. Karin cursed as Aizen stopped attacking her.

Karin became confused and wondered why he suddenly stopped fighting back. She knew that she was open and he could have just attacked her. Suddenly she realized that he was using kido (dark magic) and aimed it at both Hitsugaya and Hinamori.

"Toshiro!" Karin ran with quick speed to try to push him out of the way before Aizen could harm the both of them. Karin had barely made it, but she was able to push him away as the area that Hinamori and him were just fighting on exploded.

"Karin!" yelled a frightened Ichigo. Ichigo got up and ran but Renji pulled him back. Ichigo glared at Renji but he noticed that Renji was staring at Karin. Karin and Hitsugaya didn't get hurt and Ichigo released a breath he had held.

"Hinamori!" Hitsugaya pushed himself off Karin roughly and ran towards Hinamori. Karin held onto his arm and pulled him away.

"What the hell are you doing! Hinamori is still –

Karin slapped Hitsugaya to help him come back to his senses. Boy it worked. Hitsugaya stood before Karin holding his right cheek as he turned to where Hinamori was and saw that she manage to escape the explosion in time.

Aizen frowned and grabbed Hinamori. He tightly gripped his hand around Hinamori's wrist and tightened it. Hinamori whimpered and turned her head to Aizen.

"A .. Aizen-sama?" she asked confusedly. Aizen said nothing as he continued to tighten his grip on her wrist. Hinamori started whimpering more which turned into wailing uncontrollably.

"Aizen-sama, what are you doing?" she asked in between breaths. Hitsugaya pulled out his Zanpakuto and went for Aizen. Aizen deflected his attack with his own Zanpakuto. Hitsugaya kept attacking Aizen. Aizen didn't budge from his position as Hitsugaya's blows to him were weakening.

"Aizen-sama, what are you ah!!" a cracking sound came from her wrist. She screamed in pain and Hitsugaya stopped attacking Aizen. Aizen threw Hitsugaya off and Hitsugaya went crashing to the floor. Karin's blood boiled and she suddenly appeared in front of Aizen choking him once again.

"How could you? How could you go and destroy that girl? Why are you lying to her?! Why are you trying to hurt her so badly! What did she do to you! She didn't do anything! And yet you are hurting her! I won't forgive you! You deserve to die! Die!!!!!!" Karin's anger rose as the room became hotter. Her fire dragon growled as it encircled around Aizen refusing to let him escape from it's master's grasps.

"Aizen-sama doesn't lie!" Hinamori jumped up and thrust her Zanpakuto towards Karin. Hitsugaya threw her off. He finally decided to fight against Hinamori no matter what. He couldn't get through to her anymore and so he gave up. Instead, he wanted to protect Karin.

"Kurosaki, kill him now before it's too late!" Hitsugaya yelled at the top of his lungs. Karin nodded and went ahead to kill him but Hinamori somehow got away from Hitsugaya and stood in front of Aizen before Karin could go ahead and kill him.

Karin almost pierced her Zanpakuto through Hinamori if she hadn't stopped. "I don't understand. Why doesn't anyone believe me? Aizen-sama …Aizen-sama is innocent. He didn't do anything wrong." Tears poured out of Hinamori as she continued.

"Aizen-sama is a good person. He wouldn't do anything wrong. He –

"Hinamori!" Hitsugaya screamed. Everything went slow motion as Hinamori slowly fell towards the floor. Hitsugaya ran to catch her and Karin's eyes widen. Aizen smirked as he pulled his Zanpakuto from Hinamori's body.

Hitsugaya and Karin ran to Hinamori's side as Karin made her fire dragon wrap itself securely around Aizen to keep him from escaping. Hitsugaya's eyes began to glisten with unshed tears as Hinamori laid on the floor.

"Why? Aizen-sama?" she asked.

"Pathetic girl. I only used you to get to what I wanted. You are not of any importance to me. I never cared about you and never will."

Hinamori stared in disbelief; she didn't want to believe it. She would never believe it but it had come out of his mouth. She stared at him and realized that it was true. None of it was a lie. Tears leaked out of her eyes the more she thought about it the more she hated herself. She ruined her friendship with Hitsugaya because of her affections for her ex-Taichou.

She swatted Hitsugaya's hands off her and struggled to get up. As soon as she was up, she walked towards Aizen. She gripped Aizen's haori despite the fire dragon burning her.

"It's not true! Aizen-sama please tell me it's not true." She locked her eyes with Aizen who stared at her for a few seconds then plunged his Zanpakuto that he was holding into her chest. Hinamori made a gagging noise before screaming her guts out.

Everyone watched in anguish as Hinamori slipped from Aizen's Zanpakuto to the floor once again. Hitsugaya ran to Hinamori and hugged her to him. Tears threaten to fall from his eyes. Hinamori stared up at Hitsugaya and smiled.

"Ne, Shiro-chan. I'm so sorry I never listened to you."

"Don't be." Hitsugaya's voice shook.

"I'm sorry I let him get in between us."

"It's okay."

"Ne, Shiro-chan, could you …. ever forgive me?"

"Don't worry about it. You don't have to apologize."

"Really? I'm glad. Thank you for being my best friend." Hinamori's eyes began to close as she smiled at Hitsugaya. "Arigato …….Shiro-chan."

Those were her last words before she drifted into an eternal sleep. Hitsugaya stared at her lifeless body waiting for her to wake up but nothing happened. Karin placed her hand on Hitsugaya. At that moment, Hitsugaya awoke to reality.

From a distance, Aizen began to laugh. "Worthless." He spat. Hitsugaya shook with rage. He picked up his Zanpakuto and shoved Karin's hand away from him. His reiatsu increased rapidly, full of fury.

Karin's red eyes stared at Hinamori's body. She brushed a strand of hair from Hinamori's face.

_Hinamori, please rest in peace. I ask you right now, please let me take care of Toshiro._

Karin stood straight ready to defeat Aizen. She glanced around and saw that Hitsugaya was on a rampage, slaughtering Aizen. However, even though Aizen was taking all the hits, he wasn't dying or seem to be in pain. Aizen just let Hitsugaya cut through him, destroying him and throwing him around as if he was a rag doll.

Hitsugaya went for another blow but Aizen cut him off and sent him flying towards a wall.

"Toshiro!" Karin yelled. Karin saw that nothing was happening. Hitsugaya remained on the floor. He looked helpless and blood was pouring out of him. Karin's heart beated quickly.

_I have to do something. I have no choice. If I don't use my bankai all the way, everyone will get killed. I have to use it!_

Karin didn't bother to wait anymore. She knew what she had to do. She had to take control of her bankai and use it to it's full extent. She didn't care if she died. As long as Aizen doesn't hurt anyone else she didn't care.

"You leave me no choice." Karin began to release all her reiatsu into her Zanpakuto. Soon the room grew darker and the room grew hotter.

Ichigo and the others stared around themselves and saw the room becoming pitch black. Fire burst out from the ground as Karin and Aizen were standing on a pedestal. Hitsugaya opened his eyes and saw fire everywhere. He shifted his position and saw Karin lift her Zanpakuto and call the fire dragon to her.

The dragon flew from Aizen and hovered above her.

"You will pay for what you did to everyone." Karin said demonically. Karin guided her hand towards Aizen's chest and her fire dragon turned slightly transparent as it flew towards Aizen. The dragon flew right through Aizen and pushed his soul slightly out of his body.

Aizen's eyes widen as he saw his soul floating slightly in front of him. Karin appeared before him and put her hand on his soul's forehead. She marked another dragon on him just like the mark she put on Aizen's forehead from before. The mark glowed bright red and everything became quiet.

In a blink of an eye images were passing through the walls. The images replaying over and over were Aizen's fears. Ichigo and the others saw Aizen's fear as if it were really happening. They weren't sure if it was a dream or not but pretty soon everyone snapped back to reality and saw Karin staring at Aizen daring him to do something. Karin's lips parted and she started to speak.

"Beneath the moon of a grand tower," the room changed and now everyone was on the roof of the tower. The moon shining above their heads.

"You will meet the night of your demise." Karin pulled Aizen's soul, making it almost out of his body but still in it.

"You _stole_ a life and _will_ pay the consequence," she turned his head and forced him to look at Hinamori's lifeless body.

"Sword in hand," Karin held her white and red Zanpakuto tightly. Without any warning or hesitation, she plunged her Zanpakuto through Aizen's soul and through his physical body.

"Pierce through your soul and darkness befalls on you until you fall to the depths of hell."

Aizen let a piercing scream echo through out the roof. Inoue began to cry as Ishida embraced her. Renji wanted to look away from Aizen but he couldn't make himself look away. Ichigo and Rukia held onto each other watching in fear. Chad stared and felt his heart beat heavily and tried to keep watching.

Hitsugaya watched Karin pull her Zanpakuto and everything became black around Aizen. Aizen clutched his heart and watched his soul become wrapped around Karin's fire dragon. A hole was created beneath his feet and his soul was pulled through the hole. Fire shot out of the hole before closing.

The roof began to change once again. The moon, the room, the hole and dragon vanished into thin air as the room returned to its normal form. Aizen now lay on the floor, stone cold. He wasn't breathing anymore. The mark on his forehead vanished leaving a scar.

Karin sealed her Zanpakuto and walked towards the others. Hitsugaya stood before her and saw her crimson eyes slowly fade and turn into it's normal soft grey again.

"I told you I would defeat him." Karin displayed a goofy grin then passed out into Hitsugaya's arms. Hitsugaya held her to him and smiled.

_Baka. You nearly got yourself killed out there. I would never forgive myself if you had died._

**Two Months Later**

"You know, I just realized something," Karin said as she laid a bouquet of flowers before a gravestone.

"What?" Hitsugaya asked as he took off the dead flowers that used to sit beside the gravestone.

"My bankai, it can take people's lives in an instant." Karin's eyes became dark and Hitsugaya knew she wasn't used to her bankai. He knew a week after the Winter War Karin sealed her Zanpakuto with five seals and two chains. He knew that after taking full control of her bankai, she was afraid to use it again. To her, her bankai was scary. It had a link to hell and it was dark. She felt a great fear that she might lose control of herself, succumb to the darkness of her bankai, and use it to murder innocent people.

"I just realized that, my bankai can take peoples lives but give life at the same time." Hitsugaya looked at her strangely, as she continued. "For every light there is dark. For every dark, there is light……I know it may sound weird but, I believe that my bankai can give life as well."

"What do you plan to do now?" he asked.

"I think that I will release the seals on my Zanpakuto. I think I am ready to hold it once again." Karin kneeled down and said,

"Toshiro, she's happy now. I know she is."

"Yeah she is. Isn't she." Karin stood up and stared at the name on the grave.

_In memory of Momo Hinamori. May her soul rest in peace._

**_hints - Karin didn't think her bankai would have anything to do with pulling people's souls and sending them to hell._**

**_I apologize if the winter war was kinda boring and confusing._**

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**_no this is not a hitsu x Hina fanfic although i apologize if i made them seem like the main couple._**

**_for those who didn't understand how karin's bankai works, she just releases her bankai and a fire dragon comes out. What ever she wants it to do it follows her command. her dragon's purpose is to pull a person's soul and either give it to a person to live or take it to hell. but before she does that, for those whose souls go to hell weakened first to make it easier for their soul to leave their body. she tortures her enemies by showing their fears to them and making it seem like it is really happening._**

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**_one other hint - in the series karin is able to have dreams about people before they die. in this story she saw a repeated dream about Aizen before he dies. because of her dreams she doesn't tell anyone and it scares her. to release the fear, instead of looking for help she tries to keep it inside her and ends up releasing her fear by almost using bankai during battle or when she is afraid. (for example her battle with byakuya and the hospital scene with Hitsugaya.)_**


	15. Chapter 15

**Through It All**

**Soul Society**

"If we don't hurry up we'll be late!" yelled a raven-haired woman.

"Relax we'll make it." A tall white haired man said calmly.

Both of them had ran into a hospital to meet a woman sitting on her hospital bed holding a bundle. The woman sitting on the bed smiled as the couple just walked in.

"Oh! You came just in time." She said. "What's her name?" the raven-haired woman asked.

"Hina." The woman on the bed answered. Soon the room filled up with visitors checking on the newborn baby and mother.

Suddenly the door blasts open.

"Rukia-chan!!!! Where is she!!! I want to hold my new grand daughter!!!!" Isshin Kurosaki ran straight to Rukia and gave her a puppy dog look, desperate to hold the baby in his hands.

Rukia smiled and gave little Hina to Isshin. The cute little baby had black hair just like Rukia but the rest of her facial expression and her eyes were from Ichigo. The door opened and Ichigo walked in.

Ichigo brought in a bouquet of flowers and kissed Rukia. "Where's Hina?" Rukia pointed to Isshin and Ichigo nearly freaked out.

"Baka tou-san! You'll strangle her if you hold her like that!" Ichigo whacked Isshin on the head for cuddling Hina so tightly that she might die of suffocation. He grabbed Hina from his arms and Hina giggled from all the movement and yelling that the two Kurosakis were making.

Everyone was there. All of Gotei 13 had taken a day off to go visit Rukia and Ichigo's newborn baby. Even Zaraki was there.

Byakuya would hold the baby, even though he looked angry, he was actually happy. The baby liked him and played with his long hair. She smiled and giggled at him finding him amusing. Surprisingly Byakuya smiled at the little Kurosaki.

"Hey Karin-chan," Ichigo and Rukia called her. Karin looked up at them. It's been ten years now. She was fully-grown now and held a position as the Taichou of the 5th Division of Gotei 13. After the Winter War, she made a decision to stay in Soul Society and protect her family and friends. Through the years, her hair grew and her body lost the baby fat she once had. She stood about 5'2, however her personality didn't change too much.

"Hai, did you want me?" she asked. Rukia handed her Hina. Karin stared at Hina and smiled at her. "She's beautiful." She said. "Thank you." Rukia said.

Ichigo smiled at Karin then suddenly he made a stupid grin. "So Karin, when are we going to see a little one running around?" He asked playfully.

Karin's eyes widen. "Excuse me?"

"Oh don't give us that look Karin. You are of age to have some of your own you know." Rukia said.

Karin blushed and muttered. Never the less, she stared at the bundle and smiled. "One day Ichi-nii. One day."

Since Rukia and Ichigo were engaged in conversation with the rest of their friends, Karin walked up to the person she was yelling at earlier to hurry up.

"Isn't she beautiful?" she asked.

"Yeah." He smiled. Karin handed him the baby and asked, "Toshiro, what are you thinking about now?" Hitsugaya stared at her and the baby. He saw the baby staring back at him.

Hitsugaya grew over the years. No longer standing 4'4 but now stood at about 5'9. He still had the serious expression on his face. Everything was still the same. The only difference now was his height and a little bit of his personality.

Hina gurgled at him and reached to play with his finger. Hitsugaya's eyes soften, "Not much really."

The hospital room became crowded and everyone wanted to see Hina. Chad and the Ishidas, yes, Inoue did marry Uryu a few years after the war, walked up to Karin to take a good look at the baby.

"Ne, Karin-chan can I hold her?" Inoue asked. Karin handed her the baby and the three of them walked away with Hina playing with Inoue's hair.

Karin took hold of Hitsugaya's hand pulled him out the hospital without anyone noticing. Hitsugaya stared at her questioningly as she refused to tell him where she was taking him. After all these years, he's known her you figured she'd tell him where they would be going.

She kept pulling him until they reached an open area. The place was open and free. There were sakura trees lined up and the petals were falling. There was a nice view of the rest of Soul Society down the hill. Karin released Hitsugaya's hand and smiled.

Together they sat and watched the petals fall.

"Thank you." Karin said.

"For what?"

"For protecting me."

"Karin…..you know I'll always protect you."

"I know, but still, thank you for sticking with me through it all."

"There's no need to thank me."

Karin watched the petals fall, slowly she rested her head on Hitsugaya's shoulder. Hitsugaya played with her hair and brushed a petal from the top of her head. He noticed that she was playing with something on her left hand.

A shiny diamond ring rotated around her ring finger. Hitsugaya place his hand on her left hand. She looked up and smiled.

So many things happened during the past ten years of their lives.

He never thought it would come to this. He never thought that the woman sitting beside him would be the one person he would spend the rest of his life with. He wasn't upset, he definitely wasn't complaining, it was just new to him.

They haven't been anything more than just friends. What happened? Suddenly everything changed and he loved her. He was happy. He never thought that there would be anything else besides Hinamori that would make him happy. He was wrong.

Karin made him the happiest man alive and she didn't even know how much she made him happy. Glancing again at the ring on her hand he smiled. Nobody can take her away from him now. Not while they were bound together for eternity.

They remained there on the grass entangled to each other. Karin smiled at Hitsugaya. He was hers now and forever. She pressed her hands on his chest and then played with his hair. She watched him slowly open his eyes and wrapped his arms around her pulling her on top of him. She continued to play with his hair when she brought her face to his chest.

"Toshiro?"

"Hai?"

"I'm pregnant."

_**Hey everyone! It's over! I'm actually a little happy about how it turned out. Not sure if you liked the whole Ishida x Inoue and Rukia x Ichigo but hey I tried.**_

_**Hints – um not really I think this should have been really easy to under stand.**_

_**Well I thank you for those who read this through and through.**_

_**In my opinion I like Fire and Ice better. This turned out completely different from what I actually thought about. Well hope you all enjoyed it.**_

_**Hitsugaya x Karin Forever!**_


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